Joseph Andrews - Hardcover

Fielding, Henry

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0809598620 ISBN 13: 9780809598625

Publisher: Wildside Press, 2004

Synopsis

Joseph Andrews was the first published full-length novel of the English author and magistrate Henry Fielding, and indeed among the first novels in the English language. Published in 1742 and defined by Fielding as a "comic epic poem in prose", 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.

And, indeed, it is not fanciful to perceive in each book a somewhat different presentment of the author's genius; though in no one of the four is any one of his masterly qualities absent. There is tenderness even in Jonathan Wild; there are touches in Joseph Andrews of that irony of the Preacher, the last echo of which is heard amid the kindly resignation of the Journey to Lisbon, in the sentence, "Whereas envy of all things most exposes us to danger from others, so contempt of all things best secures us from them." But on the whole it is safe to say that Joseph Andrews best presents Fielding's mischievous and playful wit; Jonathan Wild his half-Lucianic half-Swiftian irony; Tom Jones his unerring knowledge of human nature and his constructive faculty; Amelia his tenderness, his mitis sapientia, his observation of the details of life. And first of the first.

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Review

"This edition of Joseph Andrews is an excellent introduction to Fielding as well as a fine edition of his first novel. . . . The substantial extracts from Shamela and Fielding's other writings are supported by an invaluable section on social history and by passages from influential contemporaries."--Jim Mclaverty

"Paul Scanlon's edition of Fielding's first novel -- and the first comic novel in English -- amounts to a complete kit: a student-friendly text (with capitals and italics normalized), brief and illuminating footnotes, a comprehensive, lucid Introduction, a seven-page Bibliography, and a 113-page treasure-house of appendices containing generous samples of Richardson's Pamela and Fielding's Shamela, excerpts from Fielding's comic models (such as the Maritornes passage from Don Quixote) and from Fielding's other writings (including essay-chapters from Tom Jones), and fascinating sections on the novel's publication history, contemporary responses to it, and "A Social History of the Times" dealing with dress, eating and drinking habits, servants, stagecoaches and inns, laws and courts, education, and the like. This edition is a model of useful scholarship."--Bruce Stovel

"Paul Scanlon's edition of Fielding's first novel--and the first comic novel in English--amounts to a complete kit: a student-friendly text (with capitals and italics normalized), brief and illuminating footnotes, a comprehensive, lucid Introduction, a seven-page Bibliography, and a 113-page treasure-house of appendices containing generous samples of Richardson's Pamela and Fielding's Shamela, excerpts from Fielding's comic models (such as the Maritornes passage from Don Quixote) and from Fielding's other writings (including essay-chapters from Tom Jones), and fascinating sections on the novel's publication history, contemporary responses to it, and "A Social History of the Times" dealing with dress, eating and drinking habits, servants, stagecoaches and inns, laws and courts, education, and the like. This edition is a model of useful scholarship." -- Bruce Stovel, University Of Alberta

"This edition of Joseph Andrews is an excellent introduction to Fielding as well as a fine edition of his first novel. ... The substantial extracts from Shamela and Fielding's other writings are supported by an invaluable section on social history and by passages from influential contemporaries." -- Jim Mclaverty, Keele University

"Paul Scanlon's edition of Fielding's first novel--and the first comic novel in English--amounts to a complete kit: a student-friendly text (with capitals and italics normalized), brief and illuminating footnotes, a comprehensive, lucid Introduction, a seven-page Bibliography, and a 113-page treasure-house of appendices containing generous samples of Richardson's Pamela and Fielding's Shamela, excerpts from Fielding's comic models (such as the Maritornes passage from Don Quixote) and from Fielding's other writings (including essay-chapters from Tom Jones), and fascinating sections on the novel's publication history, contemporary responses to it, and "A Social History of the Times" dealing with dress, eating and drinking habits, servants, stagecoaches and inns, laws and courts, education, and the like. This edition is a model of useful scholarship." -- Bruce Stovel, University Of Alberta

"This edition of Joseph Andrews is an excellent introduction to Fielding as well as a fine edition of his first novel. ... The substantial extracts from Shamela and Fielding's other writings are supported by an invaluable section on social history and by passages from influential contemporaries." -- Jim Mclaverty, Keele University

Synopsis

And, indeed, it is not fanciful to perceive in each book a somewhat different presentment of the author's genius; though in no one of the four is any one of his masterly qualities absent. There is tenderness even in _Jonathan Wild_; there are touches in _Joseph Andrews_ of that irony of the Preacher, the last echo of which is heard amid the kindly resignation of the _Journey to Lisbon,_ in the sentence, "Whereas envy of all things most exposes us to danger from others, so contempt of all things best secures us from them." But on the whole it is safe to say that _Joseph Andrews_ best presents Fielding's mischievous and playful wit; _Jonathan Wild_ his half-Lucianic half-Swiftian irony; _Tom Jones_ his unerring knowledge of human nature, and his constructive faculty; _Amelia_ his tenderness, his _mitis sapientia,_ his observation of the details of life. And first of the first.

Edition details

• Publisher: Wildside Press
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0809598620
• ISBN 13: 9780809598625
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 332