English novel Samuel Richardson (1689–1761), author of the epistolary novels "Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded" (1740) and "Clarissa" (1747–48); Henry Fielding (1707–1754), who wrote "Joseph Andrews" (1742) and "The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling" (1749); Laurence Sterne (1713–1768), who published "Tristram Shandy" in parts between 1759 and 1767; Oliver Goldsmith (1728–1774), author of "The Vicar of Wakefield" (1766); Tobias Smollett (1721–1771), a Scottish novelist best known for his comic picaresque novels, such as "The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle" (1751) and "The Expedition of Humphry Clinker" (1771), who influenced Charles Dickens; and Fanny Burney (1752–1840), whose novels "were enjoyed and admired by Jane
Laurence Sterne He was involved in, and wrote about, local politics in 1742. His major publication prior to "Tristram Shandy" was the satire "A Political Romance" (1759), aimed at conflicts of interest within York Minster. A posthumously published piece on the art of preaching, "A Fragment in the Manner of Rabelais", appears to have been written in 1759. Rabelais was by far Sterne's favourite author, and in his correspondence he made clear that he considered himself as Rabelais' successor in humour writing, distancing himself from Jonathan Swift: I ... deny I have gone as far as Swift: he keeps a due distance