Jonathan Wild Author:Henry Fielding The outrages that Jonathan Wild commits against the simple, virtuous Heartfree epitomizes one of the most villainous but memorably comic figures in literature. Wild is methodically evil: his thefts and vices, violence and grand deceptions, are merely steppingstones in his progress towards "greatness." In writing about this sublime blackguard, He... more »nry Fielding drew on his knowledge of London's Gin Lane, where he served as a magistrate, on legends surrounding an actual archcriminal, and on the figure of the King's minister, Sir Robert Walpole.« less