SOURCE: Novel and Romance, 1700-1800: A Documentary Record, edited by loan Williams, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1970, pp. 176-79.

In the following preface from the third edition of The History of Pompey the Little, Coventry attributes his contemporaries' disdain for prose fiction to an attempt by educated males to maintain their privileged place within society.

To Henry Fielding, Esq.;

Sir,

My design being to speak a word or two in behalf of novel-writing, I know not to whom I can address myself with so much propriety as to yourself, who unquestionably stand foremost in this species of composition.

To convey instruction in a pleasant manner, and mix entertainment with it, is certainly a commendable undertaking, perhaps more likely to be attended with success than graver precepts; and even where amusement is the chief thing consulted, there is some little merit in making people laugh, when it is done without giving...