Realism in 'Joseph Andrews'

  It was generally believed that Richardson and Defoe were great realist writers but this statement was not very true because it was Henry Fielding who was the greatest one. Henry Fielding paints whatever he sees therefore, he himself claims:   “I believe, I might aver that I have described nothing more than I have seen.”   Henry Fielding was a great realist writer who described only truth and nothing but truth. Realism means to portray life in a realistic manner. There are two types of realism. One of them is to portray and depict the real life of contemporary society and the other type is to portray the essence of reality true for all ages. In Fielding's ‘Joseph Andrews’, we can find the both types of realism i.e., contemporary and universal. Fielding's novel shows contemporary life in its fullness and besides this, such vices and absurdities have also been exposed and ridiculed as are universal and can be found everywhere in the world. The literary pieces which hav