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.’ The term picaresque has been derived from the Spanish word picaro which means a rogue or a villain. Originally, a type of romance that dealt with rogues or villains was called picaresque. A picaresque novel presented, in an extravagant style, a series of adventures , and misadventures , mostly on the highways . The earliest examples of the picaresque novel are Lizaritle de Tormes and Guzman de Alfarachi. Fielding was considerably was considerably influence by Gil Blass and Don Quixote. In fact there are marked resemblance between Joseph Andrews and Don Quixote. Parson Adam is clearly a Quixote figure.
Joseph Andrews is a novel of adventures met while travelling on the road. Joseph loses his employment in Lady Booby’s service in London for refusing her attempts to seduce him as well as those of her maid Mrs. Slipslop. On his way home to the country to his sweetheart Fanny, he meets Parson Adams, whose teaching had so fortified his virtue, walking to London in the hope of getting his sermons published; but Adams has forgotten to bring his sermons with him and so returns with Joseph. The Picaresque element in the novel is introduced in Book 1 chapter 10 with Joseph setting out on his journey in the moonlight. From here onwards to the end of Book 3, it follows the picaresque tradition closely. Fielding is considered to be the pioneer of the realistic novel in England. In fact, Fielding based all his novels on actual experience. In “Joseph Andrews”, Fielding presents a very realistic picture of the life of the English countryside in the first half of the 18th century. The first thing that strikes us about the society is its extra- ordinary callousness, even downright cruelty. Most of the members are selfish, insensible and hard- hearted. Joseph soon gets robbed and is thrown into a ditch, stripped and half dead. The...