Joseph Andrews by Henry Fielding

[Diane]

Rating: 3 Stars
Read: April 2017

This is a satire or homage to a couple of other 1001 classics, Pamela by Samuel Richardson and Don Quixote by Cervantes. It tells the story of Joseph Andrews and his friend Parson Adams and there travels through the English countryside. Joseph Andrews is Shamela's virtuous brother from the book Shamela, also by Fielding (and also a satire of Pamela by Samuel Richardson). It is not that exciting of a story, but it does have some very funny bits that will make you laugh out loud. Overall, the writing is not as good as that of Fielding's Tom Jones, which I enjoyed quite a bit more.

[Rosemary]

Joseph Andrews is purportedly the brother of Richardson's Pamela, whose "Mr B" is named Mr Booby by Fielding (in my edition Joseph's sister is named Pamela, not Shamela). A close relation, the widowed Lady Booby, employs Joseph, and falls heavily for his youthful good looks and manly form. Joseph is as determined to preserve his virtue as his sister, and flees his angry employer with very little in his pocket. He soon meets up with the unworldly curate Mr Adams from the Boobys' country parish, and together they make their impoverished way through various comic episodes back to the village that is home to Adams' family and Joseph's sweetheart, the beautiful Fanny, who joins them along the way.

I really enjoyed this! There are some long passages on various theoretical matters from politics to religion to authorship and publishing, but Fielding gives his readers permission to skip these if they wish. It's helpful to have read Pamela or at least a summary of it, especially if you found the heroine tedious and unrealistic, which will put you in harmony with the author of this parody/sequel.