Joseph Andrews Vol 1

Henry Fielding

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• Publié par: pokij
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 104
• Langue: English

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The Project Gutenberg EBook of Joseph Andrews Vol 1, by Henry Fielding Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the header without written permission. Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is important information about your specific rights and restrictions in how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. **Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** **eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** *****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** Title: Joseph Andrews Vol 1 Author: Henry Fielding Release Date: January, 2006 [EBook #9611] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on October 9, 2003] Edition: 10 Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOSEPH ANDREWS VOL 1 *** Produced by Charles Franks, Jonathan Ingram and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. THE WORKS OF HENRY FIELDING EDITED BY GEORGE SAINTSBURY IN TWELVE VOLUMES VOL. I. JOSEPH ANDREWS Portrait of Fielding, from bust in the Shire Hall, Taunton. CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION. PREFACE. BOOK I. CHAPTER I. Of writing lives in general, and particularly of Pamela, with a word by the bye of Colley Cibber and others CHAPTER II. Of Mr Joseph Andrews, his birth, parentage, education, and great endowments, with a word or two concerning ancestors CHAPTER III. Of Mr Abraham Adams the curate, Mrs Slipslop the chambermaid, and others CHAPTER IV. What happened after their journey to London CHAPTER V. The death of Sir Thomas Booby, with the affectionate and mournful behaviour of his widow, and the great purity of Joseph Andrews CHAPTER VI. How Joseph Andrews writ a letter to his sister Pamela CHAPTER VII. Sayings of wise men. A dialogue between the lady and her maid; and a panegyric, or rather satire, on the passion of love, in the sublime style CHAPTER VIII. In which, after some very fine writing, the history goes on, and relates the interview between the lady and Joseph; where the latter hath set an example which we despair of seeing followed by his sex in this vicious age CHAPTER IX. What passed between the lady and Mrs Slipslop; in which we prophesy there are some strokes which every one will not truly comprehend at the first reading CHAPTER X. Joseph writes another letter; his transactions with Mr Peter Pounce, &c., with his departure from Lady Booby CHAPTER XI. Of several new matters not expected CHAPTER XII. Containing many surprizing adventures which Joseph Andrews met with on the road, scarce credible to those who have never travelled in a stage-coach CHAPTER XIII. What happened to Joseph during his sickness at the inn, with the curious discourse between him and Mr Barnabas, the parson of the parish CHAPTER XIV. Being very full of adventures which succeeded each other at the inn CHAPTER XV. Showing how Mrs Tow-wouse was a little mollified; and how officious Mr Barnabas and the surgeon were to prosecute the thief: with a dissertation accounting for their zeal, and that of many other persons not mentioned in this history CHAPTER XVI. The escape of the thief. Mr Adams's disappointment. The arrival of two very extraordinary personages, and the introduction of parson Adams to parson Barnabas CHAPTER XVII. A pleasant discourse between the two parsons and the bookseller, which was broke off by an unlucky accident happening in the inn, which produced a dialogue between Mrs Tow-wouse and her maid of no gentle kind. CHAPTER XVIII. The history of Betty the chambermaid, and an account of what occasioned the violent scene in the preceding chapter BOOK II. CHAPTER I. Of Divisions in Authors CHAPTER II. A surprizing instance of Mr Adams's short memory, with the unfortunate consequences which it brought on Joseph CHAPTER III. The opinion of two lawyers concerning the same gentleman, with Mr Adams's inquiry into the religion of his host CHAPTER IV. The history of Leonora, or the unfortunate jilt CHAPTER V. A dreadful quarrel which happened at the inn where the company dined, with its bloody consequences to Mr Adams CHAPTER VI. Conclusion of the unfortunate jilt CHAPTER VII. A very short chapter, in which parson Adams went a great way CHAPTER VIII. A notable dissertation by Mr Abraham Adams; wherein that gentleman appears in a political light CHAPTER IX. In which the gentleman discants on bravery and heroic virtue, till an unlucky accident puts an end to the discourse CHAPTER X. Giving an account of the strange catastrophe of the preceding adventure, which drew poor Adams into fresh calamities; and who the woman was who owed the preservation of her chastity to his victorious arm CHAPTER XI. What happened to them while before the justice. A chapter very full of learning CHAPTER XII. A very delightful adventure, as well to the persons concerned as to the goodnatured reader CHAPTER XIII. A dissertation concerning high people and low people, with Mrs Slipslop's departure in no very good temper of mind, and the evil plight in which she left Adams and his company LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PORTRAIT OF FIELDING, FROM BUST IN THE SHIRE HALL, TAUNTON "JOSEPH, I AM SORRY TO HEAR SUCH COMPLAINTS AGAINST YOU" THE HOSTLER PRESENTED HIM A BILL JOSEPH THANKED HER ON HIS KNEES GENERAL INTRODUCTION. There are few amusements more dangerous for an author than the indulgence in ironic descriptions of his own work. If the irony is depreciatory, posterity is but too likely to say, "Many a true word is spoken in jest;" if it is encomiastic, the same ruthless and ungrateful critic is but too likely to take it as an involuntary confession of folly and vanity. But when Fielding, in one of his serio-comic introductions to Tom Jones, described it as "this prodigious work," he all unintentionally (for he was the least pretentious of men) anticipated the verdict which posterity almost at once, and with ever-increasing suffrage of the best judges as time went on, was about to pass not merely upon this particular book, but upon his whole genius and his whole production as a novelist. His work in other kinds is of a very different order of excellence. It is sufficiently interesting at times in itself; and always more than sufficiently interesting as his; for which reasons, as well as for the further one that it is comparatively little known, a considerable selection from it is offered to the reader in the last two volumes of this edition. Until the present occasion (which made it necessary that I should acquaint myself with it) I own that my own knowledge of these miscellaneous writings was by no means thorough. It is now pretty complete; but the idea which I previously had of them at first and second hand, though a little improved, has not very materially altered. Though in all this hack-work Fielding displayed, partially and at intervals, the same qualities which he displayed eminently and constantly in the four great books here given, he was not, as the French idiom expresses it, dans son assiette, in his own natural and impregnable disposition and situation of character and ability, when he was occupied on it. The novel was for him that assiette; and all his novels are here. Although Henry Fielding lived in quite modern times, although by family and connections he was of a higher rank than most men of letters, and although his genius was at once recognised by his contemporaries so soon as it displayed itself in its proper sphere, his biography until very recently was by no means full; and the most recent researches, including those of Mr Austin Dobson—a critic unsurpassed for combination of literary faculty and knowledge of the eighteenth century—have not altogether sufficed to fill up the gaps. His family, said to have descended from a member of the great house of Hapsburg who came to England in the reign of Henry II., distinguished itself in the Wars of the Roses, and in the seventeenth century was advanced to the peerages of Denbigh in England and (later) of Desmond in Ireland. The novelist was the grandson of John Fielding, Canon of Salisbury, the fifth son of the first Earl of Desmond of this creation. The canon's third son, Edmond, entered the army, served under Marlborough, and married Sarah Gold or Gould, daughter of a judge of the King's Bench. Their eldest son was Henry, who was born on April 22, 1707, and had an uncertain number of brothers and sisters of the whole blood. After his first wife's death, General Fielding (for he attained that rank) married again. The most remarkable offspring of the first marriage, next to Henry, was his sister Sarah, also a novelist, who wrote David Simple; of the second, John, afterwards Sir John Fielding, who, though blind, succeeded his half-brother as a Bow Street magistrate, and in that office combined an equally honourable record with a longer tenure. Fielding was born at Sharpham Park in Somersetshire, the seat of his maternal grandfather; but most of his early youth was spent at East Stour in Dorsetshire, to which his father removed after the judge's death. He is said to have received his first education under a parson of the neighbourhood named Oliver, in whom a very uncomplimentary tradition sees the original of Parson Trulliber. He was then certainly sent to Eton, where he did not waste his time as regards learning, and made several valuable friends. But the dates of his entering and leaving school are alike unknown; and his subsequent sojourn at Leyden for two years —though there is no reason to doubt it—depends even less upon any positive documentary eviden