Tom Jones is an infamous 1749 satiric novel by Henry Fielding about the misadventures of its eponymous foundling hero in his quest to win his beloved and discover his parentage. Condemned in its time as a "motley history of bastardism, fornication, and adultery," the work is recognized today as one of the most ground-breaking and influential of the early English novels. Tom Jones is thought to be the first novel to employ chapters.