Joseph Andrews

Name: Joseph Andrews
Brand: Naxos
Availability: InStock
Author: Henry Fielding
ISBN: 9781843798958

Author: Henry Fielding

Narrator: John Telfer

Unabridged: 13 hr 32 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Naxos

Published: 03/30/2015

Categories: Fiction, Classic

Synopsis

In one of the first novels in the English language, we follow the picaresque adventures of Joseph Andrews, a virtuous young man who is keen to maintain his innocence, despite being coerced into bed by nearly every woman he encounters. The episodic journey sees him head home to London with his tutor, Parson Adams, with the aim of finding his sweetheart, Fanny. Much mayhem ensues along the way as they become embroiled in a series of escapades and slapstick brawls. Fielding is an expert satirist and through the many twists and turns of narration, he combines high and low literature with high and low humour to create a witty novel that he aptly named a ‘comic epic poem in prose’.

About Henry Fielding

Henry Fielding (1707-1754) started his career as a playwright until his outspoken satirical plays so annoyed Walpole's Government that a new Licensing Act was introduced to drive him from the stage. He turned to writing various 'comic epics in prose', including Shamela and Tom Jones. A master innovator, he is credited with creating the first modern novels in English. He was also a magistrate and co-founder of the Bow Street Runners, often dubbed as London's first professional police force.

Reviews

Goodreads review by W.D. on June 24, 2019

If you haven't read Tom Jones, think of Joseph Andrews as a warm-up or apprenticeship to that great, vast comic masterpiece: all the elements of the former are present in the latter, if in truncated, embryonic form, but the narrative voice (wise, urbane, latitudinarian, compassionate-but-ironic, suf......more

Goodreads review by David on February 28, 2012

I don't think it is possible for me to review this book without thinking of "Pamela." Really, there is no contest. True, Richardson's prose is a little more approachable on a sentence level, but Fielding isn't generally presenting the thoughts of a naive girl. Beyond that, Fielding wins hands down.......more

Goodreads review by Callie on November 12, 2022

3 stars for shamela (iconic) and 1 star for JA (so boring that I wished I was reading pamela)......more

Goodreads review by Matthew on December 27, 2016

Few great books can have inspired two other great works of literature that were written for the purpose of ridiculing it. There can also be few works of literature that helped to inspire another author of conservative leanings to contribute towards one of the greatest innovations in English literatu......more

Goodreads review by Leslie on October 05, 2020

Fielding's (mis)reading of Pamela is simultaneously hilariously funny and deeply misogynistic. And the way he alters the emerging form of the novel to suit his own theatricality, away from Richardson's intense, claustrophobic interiority, is fascinating. And I always love his energetic experiments i......more