Joseph Andrews

Second only to Voltaire's Candide: Or Optimism (Penguin Classics), Henry Fielding's Joseph Andrews is the funniest, most intelligent, satirical commentary I've ever read. Actually, let's get rid of the qualifiers, Joseph Andrews is one of the two funniest books I've ever read. (I first read it in college and it introduced me to the idea that important old books could also be highly entertaining, interesting, and illuminating.) The book was first published in 1742 under the title "The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews, and of His Friend Mr. Abraham Adams" to some controversy. Fielding did not hesitate to poke merciless fun at just about everything 'respectable': religion, the law, lords and ladies, and sexual mores. Fielding attacked the moral hypocrisy of Joseph Richardson's popular Pamela: Or Virtue Rewarded (Oxford World's Classics). (Fielding also wrote a short work, Shamela, that was a direct response to Pamela. Shamela is often sold together with Joseph Andrews See e.g., Joseph Andrews and Shamela (Penguin Classics).) Pamela created a huge literary controversy; Shamela and Joseph Andrews were just two of many mocking responses, although few others survive (see, e.g. Anti-Pamela and Shamela). Joseph (who is Pamela's brother!) is a genial but naïve rustic and a footman in the service of Lady Booby (wink, wink, nudge, nudge). When Joseph rejects her very direct and bawdy advances, Lady Booby sends him packing. Joseph then begins walking home from London to the country to seek out (and marry) Fanny Goodwill, his lifelong sweetheart. Along the way he meets his hometown friend the amiable and forgetful Parson Abraham Adams. Parson Adams is on his way to London to sell his sermons for publication. When Adams discovers he has forgotten to pack said sermons, he and Joseph decide to travel home together. The trip is the departure point for many adventures and mishaps that expose the society's hypocrisy and inequities. Along the way, the reader meets many colorful characters whose pretensions often land them in dire circumstances - furnishing much hilarity to us. Fielding purported to aim at nothing less the invention of a new literary form, the "comic epic-poem in prose". He says in his Preface, "it may not be improper to premise a few words concerning this kind of writing, which I do not remember to have seen hitherto attempted in our language." Fielding, however, was also known to write 'serio-comic', ironic introductions to his works, so some caution is in order. Nonetheless, the Preface accurately describes his "comic epic-poem in prose" as "differing from comedy, as the serious epic from tragedy: its action being more extended and comprehensive; containing a much larger circle of incidents, and introducing a greater variety of characters. It differs from the serious romance in its fable and action, in this: that as in the one these are grave and solemn, so in the other they are light and ridiculous; it differs in its characters, by

This book was assigned to me in my British Literature class for a book club. Shortly after being assigned this book, I quickly went out and began reading it. While Fielding's writing style does seem to run on a bit, his narrative wit and dialogue is enjoyable. I found myself liking the three main characters, Parson Adams in particular. He told some interesting stories, and has kind of an older brother relationship with Joesph, making him a good side character. The brief moments of action were pretty good in the story, as were the humorous bits. Its easy to see why this novel will go down as one a classic in literature.

Henry Fielding wrote SHAMELA for the best of all reasons: he needed the money. The fact that Richardson's earlier PAMELA had been begging for burlesque in its absurdities and pretensions can be seen only as a contributory reason. In his preface, Fielding makes it clear that he has placed Richardson's heroine squarely in his sights. He attempts to expose "the many notorious Falsehoods and Misrepresentations of a Book called Pamela, Are exposed and refuted; and all of the matchless Arts of that young Politician, set in a true and just Light." He makes it pretty clear that in the controversy as to whether Pamela's motivation for marrying the cad who tried mightily to seduce her are innocent or mercenary Fielding sees as the latter. Like PAMELA, SHAMELA is a novel (much briefer than PAMELA) written as letters. But in Fielding's hands, Shamela is seen as the master manipulator. Where Pamela faints whenever her Mr. B. grabs her, Shamela swoons too-but in coarse delight. With each passing episode, Fielding inverts the moral universe of Richardson so that when one considers Richardson's subtitle of PAMELA as "Virtue rewarded," one now sees with crystal clarity that virtue does indeed earn a reward, but the virtue of Pamela and the virtue of Shamela are alike only in their spelling. I am glad that I read PAMELA first, for if I had come across SHAMELA first, I am pretty sure that I would have hooted and guffawed at a young innocent whose only crime was to follow on stage a deadly mimic.

The prize of this novel is the ability of the author to actually poke fun at his own readers...Fielding encourages us to stop, take a break at each short chapter; at some points he even laments that certain passages aren't worth reading, and just skipping over them would lose nothing in the reader's understanding of the content. This of course, works for us in that it makes us more prone to envelop ourselves in every chapter, following the always clumsy journey and comic circumstance of Parson Adams and Joseph Andrews. The journey from country to city is a prevalent theme in the novel, and through these distinctions, we are able to pinpoint the nuanced comedy Fielding finds in living in his own time period. To understand this you must put yourself inside of the 18th century, and more helpful would be to read the novel that this book is a parody of, "Pamela". Fielding challenges the notions of love and chastity in his time in a hysterical way; that is, if you can follow the winding text and dated grammar.. ..But what a great book. Really.

This is an incredible book about real friendship,chastity and honesty written in the most humorous fashion.Fielding brings out the true values of friendship beteween Parson Adams and Joseph and true love between the latter and Funny.He points out the sad but true "false" nature of the upper class and brings out questions about real life.I like this book because it encourages chastity and esteems honesty.