SOURCE: "The Psychological Adventures of Sarah Fielding's David Simple," in Études Anglaises, Vol. 49, No. 2, April-June, 1996, pp. 158–67.

Below, Simms argues that David Simple is a psychological tour-de-force, but that Fielding left much of her character's subconscious unexplored.

When Sarah Fielding (1710–1768) published The Adventures of David Simple in 1744, her brother Henry excused her feminine sensibilities: "[The] merit of this work consists in a vast Penetration into human Nature, a deep and profound Discernment of all the Mazes, Windings and Labyrinths, which perplex the Heart of Man to such a degree, that he is himself often incapable of seeing through them" (5). Henry Fielding, however, was hardly aware of the implications of this statement. Sarah's "penetration" was an inward turning of the novel which can be described as psychological, and "all the Mazes, Windings and Labyrinths" are maps of the workings of the mind, rather than indications of tender feelings characteristic of...