Henry Fielding was one of the most interesting playwrights of his time because of his historical position, similar to that of George Bernard Shaw, and his awareness of what it meant to be a playwright at a time when the native dramatic tradition appeared to have settled down for a long sleep and when the only hope for an awakening lay in such low crowd-pleasers as farces, puppet shows, "laughing" tragedies, and ballad operas.
By focusing on the plays themselves, Rivero tells the story of Fielding's dramatic career without burdening the reader with an exhaustive history of contemporary plays and playwrights. He provides us with a clear, critical account of Fielding's dramatic career in terms of trends in contemporary dramatic affairs that help to account for his artistic choices in individual plays.