I intend to digress, through this whole History, as often as I see Occasion: Of which I am myself a better Judge than any pitiful Critic whatever. And here I must desire all those Critics to mind their own Business. For, till they produce the Authority by which they are constituted Judges, I shall [not] plead to their Jurisdiction.

The narrator directly addresses the reader with these words in Chapter II of Book I. The direct address of the reader is a typical trait of the narrator's throughout the novel, to the point where he even assumes the status of a character within the novel. These words also allow us to assume that Fielding himself is the narrator, since he refers self-consciously to his own writing style. The narrator's contempt for critics of his work becomes a recurring theme—indeed, Fielding was obliged to preempt the slander of critics since his work urges the rather unconventional vision of Virtue as an entity that can be separated from Religion.

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