A Journey from This World to the Next
This unique double edition brings together Henry Fielding's two voyage narratives. A Journey from this World to the Next (1743) and The Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon (1755) belong, in different ways, to the travel-writing tradition, and show Fielding standing in ironic relation to the genre. The Journey is a powerful yet playful narrative, in which Fielding anatomizes contemporary follies with his customary vigour. Using the form of a journey through the underworld, he satirizes all claims to historical and political greatness. The Journal, published posthumously, recounts Fielding's last adventure. Ruined in health by overwork and a punishing lifestyle, he set sail for Lisbon in 1754 with the desperate hope of recuperating in a better climate. Though incapacitated and enduring the squalor and frustrations of a long voyage, Fielding wrote with vitality and wit throughout the journey. Vividly recording the bizarre characters he met, detailing comic and moving incidents, commenting on everything around him, his words transmit the keenness of his life rather than the imminence of his death. The introductions and notes to these lesser-known but fascinating texts illuminate their place in Fielding's work and eighteenth-century literature as a whole.
Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Fiction, Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.
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What the reading experience may hold
A fuller profile for choosing with more confidence—not just another copy of the preview.
Fiction · Nonfiction
Use these as starting points rather than limits; the most memorable books often stretch beyond their catalog labels.
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These notes are inferred from available catalog information and may not be complete. Check a publisher or reader-supplied guide if you need comprehensive warnings.
Balanced tone · Urgent pace
Works well for a focused weekend or a few concentrated sittings.
A good fit if…
Readers who want a thoughtful experience and enjoy noticing the connections beneath a book’s surface story.
This book's DNA
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This signal is descriptive, not a rating. It helps compare the kind of reading experience this edition may offer.
Spoiler-Free Emotional Arc
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A quick reading snapshot
Edition facts and catalog signals to help you decide whether this book fits what you want to read next.
- ISBN-13
- 978-1-4043-6485-1
- Language
- English
- Edition record
- OL11647317M
A more thoughtful way into this book
This guide uses the edition details and category signals above to help you choose deliberately. It does not replace the author's work or a full review.
Works well for a focused weekend or a few concentrated sittings.
Begin with its place in Fiction, then notice where the book resists that label.
Read for connection, not completion.
Mark one passage that sharpens the book's central concern and one that complicates it. That tension often reveals more than a quick summary.
Three questions to carry with you
- What does the central character want, and what do they misunderstand about that desire?
- Which detail or relationship changes how you interpret the story?
- What feeling or question does the book leave with you after the plot moves on?
Editorial framework by Wesley Bryan, BookenDeX Founder and Editor.
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