Joseph Andrews, or The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews and of his Friend Mr. Abraham Adams, was the first published full-length novel of the English author and magistrate Henry Fielding, and indeed one of the first novels in the English language.

Published in 1742 and defined by Fielding as a ‘comic romance’, it is the story of a good-natured footman's adventures on the road home from London with his friend and mentor, the absent-minded parson Abraham Adams. The novel represents the coming together of the two competing aesthetics of eighteenth-century literature: the mock-heroic and neoclassical (and, by extension, aristocratic) approach of Augustans such as Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift; and the popular, domestic prose fiction of novelists such as Daniel Defoe and Samuel Richardson.

The novel draws on a variety of inspirations. Written ‘in imitation of the manner of Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote’ (see title page on right), the work owes much of its humour to the techniques of burlesque developed by Cervantes, and its subject-matter to the seemingly loose arrangement of events, digressions and lower-class characters to the genre of writing known as picaresque. In deference to the literary tastes and recurring tropes of the period, it relies on bawdy humour, an impending marriage and a mystery surrounding unknown parentage, but conversely is rich in philosophical digressions, classical erudition and social purpose.

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"In Joseph Andrews (1742), Fielding's first novel, footboy Joseph loses his place when he rejects Lady Booby's advances, commencing a comic odyssey of robbery, poverty, and sexual viciousness. Also included is Shamela (1741), a shorter work, which extends the parody of Samuel Richardson's immensely successful Pamela (1740) begun in Joseph Andrews."

Fielding, Henry (1707-54). English writer and magistrate, Educated at Eton and Leiden, Fielding wrote numerous plays, including swingeing political satires of Walpole's government, until the theatrical Licensing Act of 1737. Called to the bar in 1740, Fielding subsequently divided his time between the law and literature, in Joseph Andrews (1742) and his masterpiece, Tom Jones (1749). Appointed JP at Bow Street in 1748, Fielding was an energetic advocate of effective measures to reduce crime, corruption, and public disorder. His health undermined by overwork, Fielding travelled to Lisbon after the publication of Amelia, his final novel, and died there. (Oxoford University Press)

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