Joseph Andrews — Henry Fielding

A rich society member wants a tenant's family out of the building, so she calls a “fixer” who knows just enough law to sound dangerous. Within a day the family is facing a police complaint over something worth less than a vada pav. Fielding wrote exactly this in 1742: a proud widow, a parish priest who will not bend, and a pretend lawyer who turns a hazel twig into a criminal case. The question for a future lawyer is simple and uncomfortable: when a powerful client asks you to use the law as a weapon, whose side is the law on?

In two minutes

In Book IV of Joseph Andrews, Lady Booby tries to stop the marriage of Joseph and Fanny and drive them out of her parish. Parson Adams refuses her on grounds of conscience and law, while Lawyer Scout twists the law to please her. Through the contrast, Fielding satirises the rich who use legal process against the poor, and the half-trained “lawyers” who help them.

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