亨利·菲尔丁是英国十八世纪最伟大的现实主义作家。他於一七○七年生於英国西部的格拉斯顿柏利,一七五四年死于葡萄牙的京城里斯本。今年是他逝世的二百周年纪念,世界和平理事会曾在一九五三年维也纳会议上作出决定:号召全世界人民把他作为今年世界四大文化名人之一来郑重地纪念他。菲尔丁虽然出身贵族家庭,但他的一生却是在艰苦紧张的劳动中生活过来的。他在英国最贵族的伊顿学院念完了他的中学之后,到荷兰的雷顿大学进了语言学系,不久就因为家境败落而不得不中途停学,返归伦敦。这时候,他说他面对着两条道路“当雇佣的马车夫还是当雇佣的作家”,他的选择是后者——— Henry Fielding was Britain’s greatest eighteenth-century realist writer. He was born in Glastonbury, West England, in 1770 and died in capital Lisbon, Portugal in 1754. This year marks the 200th anniversary of his death. The World Peace Council decided at the 1953 Vienna Conference: It called on all the people of the world to honor him solemnly as one of the four major cultural celebrities in the world this year. Although Fielding was born in a noble family, his life was born in hard and tense work. After finishing his high school at Eaton College, the most noble of the British, he went to the Department of Linguistics at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands and soon returned to London as a result of his family’s collapse. At this time, he said he faced two paths: “When the coachman employed is still a hired writer,” his choice is the latter.