Summary:

The extract belongs to the Book I and Chapter I from Henry Fielding's “The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling”.

In a very first moment the reader doesn’t understand the novelist’s words. Nevertheless going on reading he/she realizes what the writer is trying to do. He uses a metaphor to explain his intention and what represent writing from his point of view. Indeed he compares himself to a cook. There is only one difference: when a cook manages to prepare all the dishes and foods in the world, the writer cannot explain all the aspects of the human nature. As a matter of fact, human nature is so an extensive subject that is not allowed to find out by human beings. In Fielding’s words: “true nature is as difficult to be met with in authors, as the Bayonne ham, or Bologna sausage, is to be found in the shops”.

Literature has the aim and the purpose to approach human to an existential truth. Remaining in the semantic field of cuisine, the novelist’s invitation is to keep in mind the behaviours of Heliogabalus. He was a Roman imperator famous for his eccentricity and excess also in gastronomy. As in a banquet you must gradually taste another dish, a good writer must keep your attention and raising curiosity providing to the reader little by little some clues to re-organize one by one the pieces of the puzzle, that metaphorically represent the plot.