A Reading from the Book of John

Since I am going to revisit my intro to theory (and then revisit it again) to, among other things, bring in more of Fielding, I've decided to focus this revision on my introduction.  I originally wrote:

Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones is subdivided into eighteen books.  The first chapter of each book does not move the plot forwards but consists instead of the author addressing the reader directly, cheerfully discussing recent happenings in the novel, making cutting remarks about potential critics of his work and so forth.  By the last book, the reader may very well feel as though he or she and Fielding have indeed been “Fellow-Travelers in a Stage-Coach, who have passed several Days in the Company of each other” (Fielding 706-707), with Fielding acting as an unusually chatty traveling companion, irritating at times and charming at other times.  

I follow the known-new contract pretty well in this, but I think that there were some issues with levels of generality here.  The first sentence is clearly a level 1, with the second sentence consisting of level 2 (the first half) and level 3 (the details on how Fielding addresses the audience.  The third sentence I quote here seems to be somewhere between 3 (describing the chapters) and 4 (describing my reaction to Fielding).  I've therefore rewritten it as follows:

Each of Tom Jones’ eighteen books is introduced by a chapter where instead of continuing his story, Fielding addresses his readers directly.  By the end, the reader may indeed feel as though he or she and Fielding have been “Fellow-Travelers in a Stage-Coach, who have passed several Days in the Company of each other” (Fielding 706-707).  As a traveling companion, Fielding is irritating at times and charming at others as he cheerfully interrupts his novel to comment on recent plot twists, to mock literary critics and to discourse at length about the act of reading as he understands it. 

The first sentence is a level 1 sentence, as before.  I've moved that final sentence up into the second position, however, establishing it as a level 2 sentence.  The new last sentence has become a level 2 sentence as well – it provides further detail on the first sentence with reference to the metaphor introduced in the second sentence.

I think examining the generality levels of my sentences was useful since it made me stop and work out just what each sentence was about, specifically.  The paragraph flows better now (at least, I think it does) because it has been rearranged to allow for a clearer relationship between the ideas advanced in each sentence.