Joseph Andrews actually begins as a “sequel” to Shamela, Fielding’s short burlesque of Richardson’s sensationally popular Pamela. However, it quickly surpasses the original, displaying Fielding’s progress toward an original fictional voice and technique, and revealing his moral preoccupation with the question of “good nature” as the basis for real virtue. In a comic inversion of typical gender roles, Joseph (Pamela’s brother and a servant in the Booby household) virtuously resists the lustful advances of Mrs. Booby, not because he lacks masculine vigor (unthinkable for a Fielding hero), but because he faithfully loves the beautiful Fanny Goodwill. When he is dismissed by his frustrated mistress, Joseph embarks on a picaresque series of adventures with Parson Abraham Adams, who overshadows Joseph as the most vigorous presence in the novel. Adams’ virtue is matched by his naivety, continually entangling him and his companions in difficulties that test his good nature. Nabokov, among others, noted the cruelty of Joseph Andrews; Fielding seems to relish placing his virtuous heroes and heroines in compromising positions. The foolishness and eccentricity of both the Parson and Joseph, however, are vindicated by their physical and moral courage, their loyalty, and their benevolence—the comic morality of Don Quixote is an obvious model. Fielding manipulates the conventions of romance to bring about a happy ending, with a wink to his readers to acknowledge its artificiality. RH