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Joseph Andrews (full title: The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews and of his Friend Mr. Abraham Adams) is a novel written by Henry Fielding and published in 1742. This book is one of the first novels written in English, and Fielding described the work as a comic epic poem in prose. The story, written overtly in the style of the Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes, follows the adventures of the honorable footman Joseph Andrew as he tries to reunite with and marry his beloved. Colorful characters and humorous encounters fill out the tale, along with three interpolated stories-within stories-one of which is somewhat autobiographical of Fielding's own life. The novel was written as a reaction to the popular fiction of the time, which Fielding found both morally empty and literarily inept. The story was adapted to the stage in the 1780s and to film in the 1970s.
