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Abstract

Though Tom Jones has been abundantly eulogized for its architectonic structure, cohesive form and the organic and compact plot construction by critics like Coleridge, Edwin Muir and Dorothy Van Ghent and several others, yet it is an undeniable fact that it is written after the manner of the picaresque novel and unmistakably possesses some of its important characteristics. No doubt, its hero is not a rouge; but it, like a true picaresque novel, makes the hero undertake a journey frequently, pass through a succession of scenes and situations, involve in a number of adventures on the roads and inside inns, meet persons of different types and tempers, and in this way give a realistic picture of society.