The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews and of His Friend Mr. Abraham Adams

The hunter invites Adams to his house and, on the way, continues to tell Adams the importance of bravery and sacrifice for one’s country. When night falls, the men hear a woman screaming. Adams rushes to help, but the man proves to be a coward and runs way toward his house. Adams goes to help the woman, who is struggling against a man who is trying to rape her. Adams fights the man and beats him to the point where he thinks he may have killed him. The woman recounts the story the attempted rape to Adams, who considers whether he should turn himself in for killing her attacker.

A group of young men approaches Adams and the woman, and Adams tells them what happened. The attacker regains consciousness and tells the young men that Adams was the one who attacked him, and the woman was his accomplice. The young men look at Adams and the woman, decide they have “villainous” (100) and guilty faces, and judge that Adams and the woman are the attackers. They take Adams and the woman prisoner and bring them before a judge.

Adams shows his good character by comforting the woman, while the young men argue about who will get the biggest share of the reward for bringing the prisoners in. As Adams talks, the woman recognizes his voice and realizes she knows him! She is Fanny Goodwill, the young girl whom Joseph loves. When Adams tells her that Joseph is traveling to see her, she pretends she does not have feelings for him out of modesty. In truth, however, as soon as she heard about Joseph’s injuries at the hands of the robbers, she left her home to go to him, and was on the way to him when she was attacked. Despite her feigned disinterest, she loves Joseph “with the purest and most delicate passion” (102).

Adams and Fanny are taken to the house of a judge who, being drunk, wants to use the trial as a source of entertainment. He discovers that Adams is dressed as a parson but thinks he is faking it to seem innocent. He plans to send Adams and Fanny to jail until their trial. One of the men in the room is a squire who knows Adams and vouches for his innocence. The judge responds that no investigation is necessary, taking the squire’s word to be true. Adams then defends Fanny’s innocence by sharing their side of the story. By the time he finishes, the guilty man has slipped away, but Fanny and Adams are cleared of charges. Fanny overhears a young man say that he is going to the inn where Joseph’s stagecoach stopped for the night. She and Adams set out immediately to catch up with Joseph.

After walking less than a mile, Fanny and Adams stop at an alehouse as a rainstorm hits. Everyone at the pub notices Fanny, who is tall and beautifully curvy, with thick brown hair and fair skin. Beyond her attractive appearance, she is also sensible and has sweetness and “gentility” in her manner. While she and Adams sit by the fire, they hear a man with a beautiful voice singing. The man turns out to be Joseph. When Joseph sees Fanny, he can hardly contain his happiness, and kisses and embraces her until she asks him to stop out of embarrassment that everyone around them is watching. Mrs. Slipslop pretends she doesn’t know Fanny and quickly leaves the room.

It seems strange that Mrs. Slipslop would not remember Fanny, since the ladies worked together in service of Lady Booby. It becomes evident that Mrs. Slipslop only pretended to never have met Fanny. The narrator explains that there are two types of people: high people and low people. High people are of “fashion” while low people are of “no fashion” (111). However, one’s level of fashion is often relative. One’s place in society is like standing on a ladder, with people above as well as below each other, depending on the time of day. Mrs. Slipslop thinks herself a high person, and for this reason she pretends not to know Fanny. Furthermore, she realizes that Fanny’s presence has ruined her chances of seducing Joseph, whom she is still attracted to. Adams, in his naiveté, sees only the best in Mrs. Slipslop and tries to remind her of her acquaintance with Fanny from Lady Booby’s service.

Joseph, Adams, and Fanny spend the night at the alehouse. In the morning Joseph and Fanny profess their love to one another, and Joseph wants to get married right away. However, Adams advises them to wait until they can marry properly in a church, and Fanny agrees. Joseph’s leg feels much better, but before they can leave the group realizes they don’t have enough money to pay the bill for their stay. Believing the local clergyman will lend him money, Adams goes to his house to ask for it.

The local clergyman, Parson Trulliber, is also a farmer and misunderstands Adams’s reason for visiting, thinking he has come to buy a hog. Adams explains that he is not there for a hog, and the two men sit down to have a drink and breakfast. Mr. Trulliber is disrespectful to his wife, taking advantage of her adoration for him by ordering her to serve him and criticizing her cooking. When Adams explains his situation and asks for a loan, Mr. Trulliber refuses to lend him money, saying he doesn’t even believe Adams to be a clergyman. Offended, Adams says that Trulliber is disobeying the Bible. Adams leaves the house and returns to the inn.

When Adams returns without procuring a loan, the group asks the inn hostess if she would allow them to leave and pay their bill later. She immediately agrees, thinking that Adams is the brother of Mr. Trulliber, who she fears. When the hostess finds out that Adams and Mr. Trulliber are not related, she changes her mind and expects them to pay before they can leave. A peddler happens to come to the inn and, hearing that the group is detained, offers to pay their debt. He has exactly the amount of money they need, and he willingly gives it to them despite his poverty.

Adams, Fanny, and Joseph travel a few more miles and meet a kindly gentleman, a squire who invites them inside to eat. The man and Adams quickly take a liking to one another, and the man tells the group they can stay the night at his house, and he will provide horses for them. Just before the man is about to leave, he remembers that the doors to all his rooms are locked, and his housekeeper, who is away, has the key. Since the squire is unable to accommodate them, the group stays the night in an inn.

In the morning a servant comes to tell them that the horses the squire promised are unavailable because they are being given medication. The travelers will need to borrow money again to pay for their room and board at the inn. They send a letter to the squire asking to borrow money, only to receive word that he is not at home and will not return for several weeks. Adams continues to only see the squire as a good and caring man, but Joseph suspects he was never truly being nice to them and was lying all along. The host at the inn explains that the squire is a known con artist, and the host says he will allow them to borrow money for their bill since they were tricked. Adams stays to share another drink with the host, and the men begin a conversation.

The host tells Adams that he is not the first person to be conned by the squire and tells him about others who were deceived. Adams remarks that the squire’s face and attitude seemed genuine, to which the host replies that looks can be deceiving. The conversation turns to the subject of travel, and Adams states that he travels by reading books and learning about other places. Adams and the host begin arguing about the importance of tradesmen versus the importance of clergymen in society. As the argument grows heated, Joseph and Fanny enter the room ready to get back on the road, and the group continues their journey.