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Joseph Andrews
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This article is about the novel. For other uses,

see Joseph Andrews (disambiguation).

The History of the Adventures of

Joseph Andrews and of his Friend Mr.
Abraham Adams, was the first full-
length novel by the English
author Henry Fielding to be published
and among the early novels in
the English language. Appearing in
1742 and defined by Fielding as a
"comic epic poem in prose", it tells of a
good-natured footman's adventures on
the road home from London with his
friend and mentor, the absent-minded
parson Abraham Adams.

Joseph Andrews

Josephandrewsfirstedition.JPG

Author Henry Fielding

Original title The History of the

Adventures of
Joseph Andrews
and His Friend,
Mr. Abraham
Adams

Country Britain
 Language English

Publication date 1742

Media type print

Preceded by Shamela (1741) 

Followed by The Life and

Death of Jonathan
Wild, the
Great (1743) 

Inspirations

Background

Plot summary E…

E…
Book I
The novel begins with the affable,
intrusive narrator outlining the nature
of our hero. Joseph Andrews is the
brother of Richardson's Pamela and is
of the same rustic parentage and
patchy ancestry. At the age of 10, he
found himself tending animals as an
apprentice to Sir Thomas Booby. In
proving his worth as a horseman, he
caught the eye of Sir Thomas's wife,
Lady Booby, who now employs him
(age 17) as her footman.

After Sir Thomas's death, Joseph finds

his Lady's affections redoubled as she
offers herself to him in her chamber
while on a trip to London. In a scene
analogous to many of Pamela's
refusals of Mr. B in Richardson's novel,
Lady Booby finds Joseph's Christian
commitment to pre-
marital chastity unwavering. After
suffering the Lady's fury, Joseph
sends a letter to his sister much like
Pamela's anguished missives in her
own novel. The Lady makes one last
attempt at seduction before
dismissing him from both his job and
his lodgings.

As Joseph sets out from London by

moonlight, the narrator introduces the
novel's heroine, Fanny Goodwill,
Joseph's true love. A poor, illiterate girl
of 'extraordinary beauty' (I, xi), now
living with a farmer close to Lady
Booby's parish, she and Joseph had
grown ever closer since their
childhood, before their local parson
and mentor Abraham Adams
recommended that they postpone
marriage until they have the means to
live comfortably.

On his way to see Fanny, Joseph is

mugged and laid up in a nearby inn
where, by coincidence, he is reunited
with Parson Adams, who is on his way
to London to sell three volumes of his
sermons. The thief is found and
brought to the inn (only to escape later
that night), and Joseph is reunited
with his possessions. Adams and
Joseph catch up with each other, and
the parson, in spite of his own poverty,
offers his last 9s 3½d to Joseph's
disposal.
Joseph and Adams's stay in the inn is
capped by one of many
burlesque, slapstick digressions in the
novel. Betty, the inn's 21-year-
old chambermaid, had taken a liking to
Joseph, but is doomed to
disappointment by Joseph's
constancy to Fanny. The landlord, Mr.
Tow-wouse, who had always admired
Betty, saw this disappointment as an
opportunity to take advantage. Locked
in an embrace, they are discovered by
the choleric Mrs. Tow-wouse, who
chases the maid through the house
until Adams restrains her. With the
landlord promising not to transgress
again, his lady allows him to make his
peace at the cost of "quietly and
contentedly bearing to be reminded of
his transgressions, as a kind of
penance, once or twice a day, during
the residue of his life" (I, xviii).

E…
Book II

During his stay in the inn, Adams's

hopes for his sermons are mocked in
a discussion with a travelling
bookseller and another parson.
Nevertheless, Adams remains
resolved to continue his journey to
London until it is revealed that his
wife, deciding that he would be more
in need of shirts than sermons on his
journey, has neglected to pack them.
The pair thus decide to return to the
parson's parish: Joseph in search of
Fanny, and Adams in search of his
sermons.

With Joseph following on horseback,

Adams finds himself sharing a stage
coach with an anonymous lady and
Madam Slipslop, an admirer of
Joseph's and a servant of Lady Booby.
When they pass the house of a
teenage girl named Leonora, the
anonymous lady is reminded of a
story and begins one of the novel's
three interpolated tales, "The History
of Leonora, or the Unfortunate Jilt".
This continues for a number of
chapters, punctuated by the questions
and interruptions of the other
passengers.
After stopping at an inn, Adams
relinquishes his seat to Joseph, and
forgetting his horse, sets out ahead on
foot. Finding himself some time ahead
of his friend, Adams rests by the side
of the road where he becomes so
engaged in conversation with a fellow
traveller that he misses the stage
coach as it passes. As the night falls
and Adams and the stranger
discourse on courage and duty, a
shriek is heard. The stranger, having
seconds earlier lauded the virtues of
bravery and chivalry, makes his
excuses and flees the scene without
turning back. Adams, however, rushes
to the girl's aid and after a mock-
epic struggle knocks her attacker
unconscious. In spite of Adams's
good intentions, he and the girl, who
reveals herself to be none other than
Fanny Goodwill (in search of Joseph
after hearing of his mugging), find
themselves accused of assault and
robbery.

After some comic litigious wrangling

before the local magistrate, the pair
are eventually released and depart
shortly after midnight in search of
Joseph. They do not have to walk far
before a storm forces them into the
same inn that Joseph and Slipslop
have chosen for the night. Slipslop,
her jealousy ignited by seeing the two
lovers reunited, departs angrily. When
Adams, Joseph and Fanny come to
leave the following morning, they find
their departure delayed by an inability
to settle the bill, and, with Adams's
solicitations of a loan from the local
parson and his wealthy parishioners
failing, it falls on a local peddler to
rescue the trio by loaning them his
last 6s 6d.

The solicitations of charity that

Adams is forced to make, and the
complications which surround their
stay in the parish, bring him into
contact with many local squires,
gentlemen and parsons, and much of
the latter part of Book II is taken up by
discussions of literature, religion,
philosophy and trade that result.

E…
Book III
The three depart the inn by night, and
it is not long before Fanny needs to
rest. With the party silent, they
overhear approaching voices agree on
"the murder of any one they meet" (III,
ii) and flee to a local house. Inviting
them in, the owner, Mr. Wilson, informs
them that the gang of supposed
murderers were in fact sheep-stealers,
intent more on the killing of livestock
than of Adams and his friends. The
party being settled, Wilson begins the
novel's most lengthy interpolated tale
by recounting his life story; a story
which bears a notable resemblance to
Fielding's own youth.
 Wilson begins his tale in the first
edition of 1742.

At the age of 16, Wilson's father died

and left him a modest fortune. Finding
himself the master of his destiny, he
left school and travelled to London
where he soon acquainted himself
with the dress, manners and
reputation for womanising necessary
to consider himself a "beau". Wilson's
life in the town is a façade: he writes
love-letters to himself, obtains his fine
clothes on credit, and is concerned
more to be seen at the theatre than to
watch the play. After two bad
experiences with women, he is
financially crippled, and much like
Fielding, falls into the company of a
group of Deists, freethinkers and
gamblers. Finding himself in debt, he,
like Fielding, turns to the writing of
plays and hack journalism to alleviate
his financial problems. He spends his
last few pence on a lottery ticket, but
with no reliable income, is soon forced
to exchange it for food. While in jail for
his debts, news reaches him that the
ticket he gave away has won a £3,000
prize. His disappointment is short-
lived, however, as the daughter of the
winner hears of his plight, pays off his
debts, and, after a brief courtship,
agrees to marry him.

Wilson found himself at the mercy of

many of the social ills that Fielding
had written about in his journalism:
the over-saturated and abused literary
market, the exploitative state lottery,
and regressive laws which sanctioned
imprisonment for small debts. Having
seen the corrupting influence of
wealth and the town, he retires with
his new wife to the rural solitude in
which Adams, Fanny and Joseph find
them. The only break in his
contentment, and one which turns out
to be significant to the plot, was the
kidnapping of his eldest son, whom he
has not seen since.

Wilson promises to visit Adams when

he passes through his parish, and
after another mock-epic battle on the
road, this time with a party of hunting
dogs, the trio proceed to the house of
a local squire, where Fielding
illustrates another contemporary
social ill by having Adams subjected
to a humiliating roasting. Enraged, the
three depart to the nearest inn to find
that, while at the squire's house, they
had been robbed of their last half-
guinea. To compound their misery, the
squire has Adams and Joseph
accused of kidnapping Fanny, to have
them detained while he orders the
abduction of the girl himself. She is
rescued in transit, however, by Lady
Booby's steward, Peter Pounce, and all
four of them complete the remainder
of the journey to Booby Hall together.

E…
Book IV

On seeing Joseph arrive back in the

parish, a jealous Lady Booby
meanders through emotions as
diverse as rage, pity, hatred, pride and
love. The next morning Joseph and
Fanny's banns are published and the
Lady turns her anger onto Parson
Adams, who is accommodating Fanny
at his house. Finding herself
powerless either to stop the marriage
or to expel them from the parish, she
enlists the help of Lawyer Scout, who
brings a spurious charge of larceny
against Joseph and Fanny to prevent,
or at least postpone the wedding.

Three days later, the Lady's plans are

foiled by the visit of her nephew, Mr
Booby, and a surprise guest: Booby
has married Pamela, granting Joseph
a powerful new ally and brother-in-law.
What is more, Booby is an
acquaintance of the justice presiding
over Joseph and Fanny's trial, and
instead of Bridewell, has them
committed to his own custody.
Knowing of his sister's antipathy to the
two lovers, Booby offers to reunite
Joseph with his sister and take him
and Fanny into his own parish and his
own family.

In a discourse with Joseph

on stoicism and fatalism, Adams
instructs his friend to submit to the
will of God and control his passions,
even in the face of overwhelming
tragedy. In the kind of
cruel juxtaposition usually reserved for
Fielding's less savoury characters,
Adams is informed that his youngest
son, Jacky, has drowned. After
indulging his grief in a manner
contrary to his lecture a few minutes
previously, Adams is informed that the
report was premature, and that his son
has in fact been rescued by the same
peddler that loaned him his last few
shillings in Book II.

Lady Booby, in a last-ditch attempt to

sabotage the marriage, brings a young
beau named Didapper to Adams's
house to seduce Fanny. Fanny is
unmoved by his bold attempts at
courtship. Didapper is too bold in his
approach and provokes Joseph into a
fight. The Lady and the beau depart in
disgust, but the peddler, having seen
the Lady, is compelled to relate a tale.
The peddler had met his wife while in
the army, and she died young. While
on her death bed, she confessed that
she once stole an exquisitely beautiful
baby girl from a family named
Andrews, and sold her on to Sir
Thomas Booby, thus raising the
possibility that Fanny may in fact be
Joseph's sister. The company is
shocked, but there is general relief
that the crime of incest may have
been narrowly averted.

The following morning, Joseph and

Pamela's parents arrive, and together
with the peddler and Adams, they
piece together the question of Fanny's
parentage. The Andrews identify her
as their lost daughter, but have a twist
to add to the tale. When Fanny was an
infant, she was indeed stolen from her
parents, but the thieves left behind a
sickly infant Joseph in return, who
was raised as their own. It is
immediately apparent that Joseph is
the above-mentioned kidnapped son
of Wilson, and when Wilson arrives on
his promised visit, he identifies
Joseph by a birthmark on his chest.
Joseph is now the son of a respected
gentleman, Fanny an in-law of the
Booby family, and the couple no longer
suspected of being siblings. Two days
later they are married by Adams in a
humble ceremony, and the narrator,
after bringing the story to a close, and
in a disparaging allusion to
Richardson, reassures readers that
there will be no sequel.

Stage adaptation

Film adaptation
Radio adaptations

Notes E…

1. ^ Jason, Philip K. (November 1967).

"Samuel Jackson Pratt's unpublished
comedy of 'Joseph Andrews' ". Notes
and Queries. 14 (11): 416–
418. doi:10.1093/nq/14-11-416 .

References

Bibliography

External links

Last edited 7 months ago by Blind…

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