Product Description

'I beg as soon as you get Fielding's Joseph Andrews, I fear in Ridicule of your Pamela and of Virtue in the Notion of Don Quixote's Manner, you would send it to me by the very first Coach.' (George Cheyne in a letter to Samuel Richardson, February 1742) Both Joseph Andrews (1742) and Shamela (1741) were prompted by the success of Richardson's Pamela (1740), of which Shamela is a splendidly bawdy parody. But in Shamela Fielding also demonstrates his concern for the corruption of contemporary society, politics, religion, morality, and taste. The same themes - together with a presentation of love as charity, as friendship, and in its sexual taste - are present in Joseph Andrews, Fielding's first novel. It is a work of considerable literary sophistication and satirical verve, but its appeal lies also in its spirit of comic affirmation, epitomized in the celebrated character of Parson Adams. This revised and expanded edition follows the text of Joseph Andrews established by Martin C. Battestin for the definitive Wesleyan Edition of Fielding's works. The text of Shamela is based on the first edition, and two substantial appendices reprint the preliminary matter from Conyers Middleton's Life of Cicero and the second edition of Richardson's Pamela (both closely parodied in Shamela). A new introduction by Thomas Keymer situates Fielding's works in their critical and historical contexts.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #103681 in Books
• Published on: 1999-07-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

Customer Reviews

Brilliant, energetic and immensely funny.
Fielding's Joseph Andrews is a joy. The picaresque adventures of Andrews and his "mentor", the redoubtable Parson Adams are tremendously engaging, and the author's explanatory inter-chapters are very amusing indeed. While Shamela, a direct parody of Richardson's characteristically tedious and sententious Pamela, is somewhat less appealing (since, alas, knowledge of Richardson's book is a prerequisite to real enjoyment), it is effective satire of a most deserving target. Because Joseph Andrews makes up the bulk of the volume, Shamela can be treated simply as a bonus. Joseph Andrews is a novel of unremitting good humour and displays frequent flashes of wisdom and insight. It is not on the scale of Tom Jones, but I found it as engaging in its own right.

What a read!
Joseph Andrews. This book has it all: double entendres, hilarious scenarios, wicked clergymen, frothing squires, physical violence and lewd women. This might sound like the 18th Century equivalent of a Carry On film - but maybe that's not a bad analogy. This is apparently a harmless, humorous read. It is spirited and lively. For the more scholarly reader there is also a lot of socio/political undercurrent to the work - as the experienced reader would expect from Fielding. A book to be enjoyed by all, and one that survives multiple readings.
Shamela. This is probably best read straight after Samuel Richardson's Pamela - of which it is a famous parody. If you do, this becomes a gut-buster of a laugh. If you don't, it's still very funny. Short, to the point and devastatingly successful. There is possibly even more going on in the way of Fielding's commentary in this little work than there is in Joseph Andrews.
Tom Keymer's introduction helps the casual reader without alienating them, and is also of value to students of the novel too because it is not 'dumbed down'.

This is where 'the novel' really started.

I love Pamela, but I also love this!
I admit that when I came into reading this story, fresh from reading Pamela, which was an enjoyable satisfying read, I was ready to be defensive in reading these stories. I very much liked Pamela's innocence, despite it's lengthiness, so with Fielding's work being a hostile satire of Pamela it wasn't going to gain my favour easily. However, I must say that I enjoyed Joseph Andrews immensely and it's credit to Fielding for writing such a funny, engaging novel.

The book consists of two stories: Shamela, which is a direct parody of Pamela as suggested by it's title (i.e. Pamela: The "real" story), and Joseph Andrews, which is a novel, set in the same world as that of Pamela. In fact Pamela even makes an appearence in this story also, but be aware that this isn't really a flattering one, although the satire is nowhere near as strong as in Shamela.

Shamela is a very short novel (under 50 pages) that follows the structure of Pamela and re-interprets events in order to make Pamela an ambitious schemer who seduces a besotted rich husband for power and money.

This is generally very cleverly done and it includes a lot of humour ("vartue" for "virtue" for example). Shamela is a real treat for Anti-Pamelists who suspect that she isn't all she seems. However, for me this story ruined my fantasy of the youthful innocent who defies the advances of the powerful Mr B. Frankly, although I see the funny side of Shamela, I don't want to believe it. Added to this, the letters are slightly boring and preachy to read before Shamela's first letter.

Joseph Andrews follows Pamela's cousin Joseph Andrews who is a male-servant for a relative of Mr B (or Booby as he is called in Fielding's work) Mrs Booby who grows infatuated with him. Ultimately, because of this Joseph, as he is a righteous character, is forced away and embarks on a journey, alongside Parson Abraham Adams and his true love Fanny.

This adventure goes through a series of turns and events before it reaches its surprising conclusion (I kick myself still as I didn't see it coming), and is very funny from start to finish. It's one of the few books I have found laugh-out-loud funny at least. The characters in the text are all flawed, but all reassuringly human. The narrator also is very engaging, much more so than in Pamela, and you can't help but get caught up in the adventure, the humour and the hypocrisy of the book. It's light, entertaining and has many twists and turns and stories along the way.

On the negative side Fielding's narrator does tend to waffle on every so few chapters and generally this is unintersting and makes difficult reading, but Joseph Andrews is still a great story. Ultimately I would recomend this book, as I found it very entertaining and funny, but please don't hold too many preconceptions about this book, because it denies its enjoyment.