Fielding in his country

Henry Fielding: Joseph Andrews The title page of Henry Fielding's first novel reads as follows: 'The history of the adventures of Joseph Andrews and of his friend Mr. Abraham Adams. Written in imitation of the Manner of Cervantes, Author of Don Quixote. The allusion to Cervantes and his masterpiece Don Quixote as well as the explicit definition of his own writing later in the preface as a comic epic poem in prose, shows Fielding deeply …

…honesty, idealism and a truly Christian attitude towards life. Though Fielding gives us a realistic and accurate portrait of eighteenth-century England, his greatest skill is the portrait of character. Parson Adams is one of the greatest in English fiction. Joseph and his sweetheart are not meant to be much more than lay-figures, but the host of minor characters, though not drawn so completely as Adams are fully alive, having the distinctive individuality of Hogarth's prints.