Joseph Andrews (Dover Thrift Editions)
(in full The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews and of His Friend Mr. Abraham Adams) Novel by Henry Fielding, published in 1742. It was written as a reaction against Samuel Richardson's novel Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded (1740). Joseph Andrews begins as a burlesque of Pamela, but the parodic intention of the novel soon becomes secondary, and it develops into a masterpiece of sustained irony and social criticism. At its center is Parson Adams, one of the great comic figures of literature. Joseph and the parson have a series of adventures, in all of which they manage to expose the hypocrisy and affectation of others through their own innocence and guilelessness.   --The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.