Joseph Andrews and Shamela

In writing these comic novels Henry Fielding took aim at the conventional morals and mores found in the novels of his contemporary, Samuel Richardson. Joseph Andrews, Fielding's first full-length novel, can be seen as a response to Richardson, as the lascivious Lady Booby sets out to seduce her comically chaste servant Joseph (himself in love with the much-put-upon Fanny Goodwill). As in Tom Jones, Fielding takes a huge cast of characters out on the road and exposes them to many colorful an...