Fielding, The Whole Duty of Man, Shamela, and Joseph Andrews.
- UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- James E. Evans, Professor (Creator)
- Institution
- The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
- Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
Abstract: In the years since the question of authorship was satisfactorily resolved, Shamela has received much attention. Few would now deny that Fielding's parody goes beyond its primary target, Pamela, to ridicule three other best sellers of 1740 and 1741- An apology for the life of Mr. Colley Cibber, Comedian, Connyers Middleton's Life of Cicero (especially its dedication to Lord Hervey), and A Short Account of God's Dealings with the Reverend Mr. George Whitefield. The result of this multiple satire is the exposure to artistic, religious, and social fraud in Walpole's England. One theme linking Pamela to the satire of false religion, suggests Eric Rothstein, is Shamela's comic adherence "to the serious belief of Middleton and Whitefield that...the self should be the measure of moral truth."1 Amid this egocentrism there is a more positive motif in several allusions to another book, itself a best seller for many years, The Whole Duty of Man, which had been attacked by Whitefield and recommended by Pamela. Because of its place in his own history Fielding introduced this devotional work in Shamela to defend it from such an enemy and such a friend, as well as to vindicate its morality to a deluded public. In Joseph Andrews he made it one basis of his hero's virtue.
Fielding, The Whole Duty of Man, Shamela, and Joseph Andrews.
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Created on 6/14/2013
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Language: English
- Date: 1982
- Keywords
- authorship, shamela, joseph andrews, parody , satire, literature, England, Walpole, literary analysis