Sarah Fielding's novels have been described as precursors of various late-eighteenth-century literary forms: her interest in psychology and the problem of evil seems anticipatory of Gothic fiction, while the apologue David Simple (1744) has much in...

Below, Johnson discusses how Fielding blends fiction and biography to create a unique narrative form in The Lives of Cleopatra and Octavia which she uses to examine women's psychological complexity while exposing the corrupting power of human institutions.

In the following essay, Downs-Miers examines the literary strategies and conventions Fielding used to create texts that would appeal to a middle-class market, even though her narratives included unconventional explorations of the female psyche and challenges to prevailing eighteenth-century views of womanhood.

In the excerpt below, Woodward argues that Fielding's David Simple is a critique of the feminine virtues prescribed by capitalist-patriarchal society, and suggests that domestic ideology confined and stultified Fielding herself.