Amelia is Fielding's last novel, a more sober work than his earlier comedies. It follows Captain William Booth and his loyal, patient wife Amelia as they struggle with debt, temptation and a careless legal system in London. Booth is kind but weak, and misfortune and bad company repeatedly threaten the family.
The book draws on Fielding's experience as a magistrate, showing prisons, courts and the hardships of ordinary households. It is a tender and serious portrait of marriage and endurance, and it argues for compassion and social reform.
Quotes
To speak a bold truth, I am, after much mature deliberation, inclined to suspect that the public voice hath, in all ages, done much injustice to Fortune, and hath convicted her of many facts in which she had not the least concern.
Life may as properly be called an art as any other.
It hath been often said, that it is not death, but dying which is terrible.
These are called the pious frauds of friendship.