occasionally an auther interrupts the flow of his story to make an observation of his own. Thus, in the opening pages of Tom fones, Fielding (p. 232) suddenly stops and says, "Reader" I think proper,before we proceed any futher togeter , to acquaint thee , that 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."There are limitations to this technique,however,as the intrusion of the author into the story may tend to destroy the illusion of reality the novelist is seeking to create . The characters are shown to be puppets controlled by the author instead of creatures of flesh and blood with minds of their own.