Joseph Andrews

Joseph, a footman in eighteenth-century England, must protect his virtue from the advances of several women, including Lady Booby, and Betty, a chambermaid.

It is a story of Joseph's dogged determination, against all odds, in one of the richest, sanest, funniest and most attractive novel.

Drawn, as Fielding said, in imitation of Cervantes, its Don Quixote is the unforgettable Parson Adams -- the unique embodiment of a vigorous, innocent and rational enjoyment of life and the first great comic character in fiction.