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Fiction

Notes

Notes Joseph prepares to meet Pamela and Lady Booby, and Fanny goes with Mr. Adams
to the latter’s home.

Chapter VI

Joseph and Pamela have a tearful reunion, and Joseph recounts all the adventures he had after
leaving London. In the evening he reluctantly agrees to stay the night in Booby Hall rather
than joining Fanny and Mr. Adams. Lady Booby retires to her room and, with help from Mrs.
Slipslop, defames both Pamela and Fanny. They then discuss Joseph and whether Lady Booby
degrades herself in being attracted to him. Slipslop defends Joseph passionately against the
charge of being “coarse” and avers that she wishes she herself were a great lady so that she
could make a gentleman of him and marry him. Lady Booby tells Mrs. Slipslop that she is “a
comical Creature” and bids her good-night. In the morning Joseph visits Fanny at the Adams
household, and they settle on Monday as their wedding date.

Chapter VII
Fielding explains why it is that women often discover in love “a small Inclination to Deceit”:
from childhood, women are taught to fear and avoid the opposite sex, so that when as adults
they begin to find him agreeable, they compensate by “counterfeiting the Antipathy,” as Lady
Booby has done with respect to Joseph. She “loves him much more than she suspects,” especially
now that she has seen him “in the Dress and Character of a Gentleman,” and she has formed
a plan to separate him from Fanny. She convinces Mr. Booby to dissuade Joseph from marrying
Fanny on the grounds that the alliance would make it impossible for the Boobys to gentrify
the Andrews family. Mr. Booby assents to this plan and approaches Joseph, who resists his
brother-in-law’s suggestions even when Pamela joins the argument.
Fanny walks in an avenue near Booby Hall and meets a Gentleman with his servants. The
Gentleman attempts to force himself on Fanny and, when he fails, continues on to Booby Hall
while leaving a Servant behind to persuade Fanny to go home with the Gentleman. This Pimp,
failing in his office, makes an attempt on Fanny himself. Fortunately, Joseph intervenes before
the Pimp can get very far and eventually beats him off. During the scuffle the Pimp tore at
Fanny’s clothing, uncovering her “snowy” bosom, which entrances Joseph once he has time
to notice it. He averts his eyes, however, once he perceives her embarrassment, and together
they proceed to the Adams household.

Chapter VIII
Just before the arrival of Joseph and Fanny, Mr. and Mrs. Adams conclude an argument about
whether Mr. Adams should, for the sake of the family, have avoided offending Lady Booby.
In Mrs. Adams’s opinion, the clergyman should oblige the Lady by ceasing to publish the
banns; Adams, however, “persists in doing his Duty without regarding the Consequence it
might have on his worldly Interest.” Joseph and Fanny enter and sit down to breakfast. Joseph
expresses his eagerness to be married, and Adams warns him to keep his intentions in marriage
pure and not value Fanny above the divine will: “No Christian ought so to set his Heart on
any Person or Thing in this World, but that whenever it shall be required or taken from him
in any manner by Divine Providence, he may be able, peaceably, quietly, and contentedly to
resign it.” Just as Adams has finished saying this, someone enters and tells him that his

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