Fiction and the Shape of Belief

A Study of Henry Fielding with Glances at Swift, Johnson and Richardson

Sheldon Sacks

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN: 9780520319783
• eBook ISBN: 9780520319790
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Littérature
• Subtopic: Critique littéraire Histoire et théorie

Fiction and the Shape of Belief explores how eighteenth-century fiction negotiates the relationship between narrative form and ethical conviction. Sheldon Sacks develops a critical “grammar” of fictional types—satire, apologue, and action—and demonstrates how each embodies belief in distinct ways. With particular attention to Henry Fielding, and comparative glances at Swift, Johnson, and Richardson, Sacks reveals how narrative strategies shape the moral and intellectual content of prose fiction. The study challenges critics who collapse diverse forms under thematic generalities, offering instead a precise framework for understanding how structure and belief cohere.

By insisting that belief is not incidental ornament but integral to fictional organization, this landmark work reframes the place of the novel in literary history. It shows that Fielding’s novels cannot be read simply as carriers of moral “themes,” but as actions whose coherence depends on the interplay of character, complication, and resolution. At the same time, the book clarifies the unique artistic demands of satire and apologue, illuminating why Gulliver’s Travels or Rasselas succeed on their own terms but fail when judged as novels. First published by the University of California Press in 1967, Fiction and the Shape of Belief remains a foundational intervention in narrative theory and eighteenth-century studies.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1967.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Chapter One Toward a Grammar of the Types of Fiction
• Chapter Two From Comment to Structure
• Chapter Three The Fallible Paragons
• Chapter Four Walking Concepts
• Chapter Five The Digressions
• Chapter Six The Great, Useful and Uncommon Doctrine
• Index