Bombardi Eleonora, Cecilia Brosio, Mercanile Roberta, Penaglia Chiara, Rosiello Alice
Class 4^E
SAMUEL RICHARDSON
He was an 18th-century English writer and printer. He wrote Pamela: at the end he was one of the
authors of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum.
Biography
1689  Richardson was born on 19th August in Mackworth,
Derbyshire
1719  after having finished his seven years of apprenticeship
under John Wilde and having become an “Overseer and
Corrector of a Printing-Office”, he opened his own
printer shop.
1721  Richardson married Martha Wilde, the daughter of his
former employer, and from her he had five sons and a
daughter. All his sons and also his wife died early and so
he and his daughter moved into another house on Blue
Ball Court when they also lived with Elizabeth Leake,
the Richardson’s second wife. From her Richardson had
five daughters and a son. Only four daughters became
adult and their son was born in 1739 and died in 1740.
1733  Richardson was granted a contract with the House of
Commons to print the Journals of the House, improving his business. Then, he wrote The
Apprentice’s Vade Mecum to create the perfect apprentice.
1740  He published his first novel: “Pamela: or, Virtue Rewarded”
1748  He published his second novel: “Clarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady”. But the three
volumes were published later so people began to imagine the end of the story and they
asked for a happy ending. Obviously the writer refused this request and also Fielding, who
was the strongest antagonist of Richardson, was agreed with him because a happy ending
would not do the novel justice.
1753  He printed his new novel: The History of Sir Charles Grandison. But he discovered that
Irish printers were trying to pirate the work, so he relied on multiple London printing firms
to help him produce an authentic edition before the pirated version was sold.
1761  Richardson died and he was buried near his first wife Martha at St. Bride's church. He
wanted to leave his works to his family but with the death of his sons and a nephew he had
to leave the printer to his second nephew, even if he doubted the younger man's abilities. In
fact after the death of Richardson his printer stopped working.
Epistolary novels
The 18th century is the golden age of the epistolary novel throughout Europe. In
epistolary novel or novel of letters, the narration takes place in the form of
letters, possibly journal entries, and occasionally newspaper reports (epistle is an
archaic term for a letter).
The epistolary novel is an interesting literary technique, because it allows a
writer to include multiple narrators in his or her story. This means the story can
be told and interpreted from numerous viewpoints.
The first true epistolary novel was the 17th century work, Love-Letters Between
a Nobleman and his Sister penned by Aphra Behn but the first great international
success in this genre is Lettres persanes, a philosophical novel by the French
writer and philosopher Montesquieu. Many critics consider the first truly modern
English novel Pamela of Samuel Richardson.
The epistolary novel shows an astonishing variety of moods and contents, for example:
 The Sorrows of Young Werther, (J.W.Goethe), is a psychological novel based on unhappy love;
 Richardson’s Pamela is a sentimental novel with strong social and religious overtones;
 La nouvelle Héloise, by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, embodies the Enlightenment philosophy of the
return to primitive mature as the correction of the society’s abuses.
The epistolary novel enjoyed its greatest popularity in England and France from the mid-1700s to
the end of the century, a time when literacy was on the increase and the public sought literary works
with more depictions of ordinary experience and greater psychological realism than were found in
the old heroic romances. With its reliance on subjective points of view, the epistolary novel by its
very nature offers intimate insight into characters' thoughts and feelings without interference from
the author, and advances the plot with dramatic immediacy. Epistolary authors commonly wrote
about questions of morality, and many epistolary novels are sentimental in nature.
The acknowledged great British epistolary novelists of the period included Richardson, Henry
Fielding, and Tobias Smollet. Fielding, Richardson’s rival, with his parody points out some of the
inherent problems with the epistolary form, including the fact that simple, uneducated characters
convey their sentiments through sophisticated literary means.
The epistolary novel presents a great technical variety: it can be distinguished between a singlepoint-of-view and a composite-point-of-view. In the first the letters are written by only one
correspondent, while in the second the letters are exchanged between several correspondents like in
the Les liaisons dangereuses.
Very important in epistolary novel is the role of the editor, a fictitious figure who pretends to have
found the letters and presents them to the public. The fictitious editor may be found in Pamela,
Werther and Ortis. The editor has got two different functions: on the one hand, his impersonal role
adds an air of authenticity to the letters while on the other hand he is a neutral voice which increases
the complexity of the epistolary exchange.
Richardson was the first writer to dramatize letter-writing. Richardson uses many devices for
making his letters lively and intensely dramatic, as if they were written in the moment. In the 18th
century the epistolary novel served a dual purpose: it was the means of expressing philosophical
and social issues as well as individuality of feelings. On the one hand, writers such as Montesquieu
and Rousseau found in letters the ideal medium for giving their own view of man and society.
In the Enlightenment the epistolary novels were important instruments for the diffusion of the great
issues like religious tolerance, freedom, equality and the return to nature. On the other hand, the
letters became the means of psychological analysis of characters. The first acclaimed master of this
was Richardson and his lesson was soon followed by other European writers.
Samuel Richardson’s works
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Pamela
Clarissa
Sir Charles Gradinson
Letters
PAMELA
In his first novel, “Pamela”, he explored the various complexities of the title character's life, and
the letters allow the reader to witness her development and progress over time. This novel was an
experiment, but it allowed Richardson to create a complex heroine through a series of her letters.
CLARISSA
When Richardson wrote his second novel “Clarissa, or story of a
Young lady” he had more experience in the form and expanded the
letter writing to four different correspondents, which created a
complex system of characters encouraging each other to grow and
develop over time. It was published in 1748 and tells the tragic story
of a heroine whose quest for virtue is continually thwarted by her
family: Clarissa Harlowe is a beautiful eighteen-year-old woman
considered an exemplary woman by everyone around her, but the
members of the family are avaricious and eager to improve their
standing in the world, and Clarissa becomes the victim of their
avidity. The trouble starts when Richard Lovelace, a charming man,
comes to pay court to Clarissa’s sister, Arabella, but is attracted by
Clarissa instead.
SIR CHARLES GRANDISON
His third epistolary novel was “Sir Charles Gradinson”. It transforms the letter writing from
telling of personal insights and explaining feelings into a means for people to communicate their
thoughts on the actions of others and for the public to celebrate virtue. The book was published in
1753 and it was a response to Henry Fielding's The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, which
parodied the morals presented in Richardson's previous novels. The novel follows the story of
Harriet Byron who is followed by Sir Hargrave Pollexfen. After she rejects Pollexfen,
he kidnaps her, and she is only freed when Sir Charles Grandison comes to her rescue. After his
appearance, the novel focuses on his history and life, and he becomes its central figure.
The novel incorporates an epistolary format similar to Richardson's previous novels, Clarissa and
Pamela. Unlike those novels, Charles Grandison, the leading male character, is a morally good man
and without the evil intent that is manifested by the Lovelace or Mr. B (characters of Clarissa and
Pamela respectively).
LETTERS
He wrote also the “Letters Written to and for Particular Friends, on the Most Important
Occasions” (1741), in which Richardson addressed a number of fictional situations, including that
of attractive servant-girls subject to plots against their virtue. Containing one hundred and seventythree letters.
Pamela, or virtue rewarded
Richardson’s masterpiece
This novel is Samuel Richardson’s first work of fiction but also his Masterpiece. It was the first
example of a best-seller in the history of the English novel.
This is an epistolary novel; most of the letters are written
by the protagonist, Pamela Andrews, a young servant girl,
to her parents. The book was immensely popular not only
in England but also in Europe where it was soon translated
into all the major languages and turned into a play. (For
example in Italy, Carlo Goldoni wrote two comedies after
Richardson’s novel: Pamela nubile and Pamela Maritata)
The publication of Pamela in 1740 in England was a
massive cultural event, inspiring praise and condemnation,
followed by endless discussion, public debates, letters
written to journals and newspapers. The novel’s implicit
theme divided the country into Pamelist and anti-Pamelist
(like Henry Fielding). Imitations and parodies (like Henry
Fielding book’s Shamela) soon come out, so Richardson’s
first follow-up was a sequel to the novel, Pamela in her
Exalted Condition (1741)
The letters
In Pamela, the letters are almost exclusively written by the heroine, restricting the reader's access to
the other characters; we see only Pamela's perception of them, while in Richardson's other novels,
the reader is privy to the letters of several characters and can more effectively evaluate the
characters' motivations and moral values.
In the novel, Pamela writes two kinds of letters. At the beginning, while she decides how long to
stay on at Mr B's after his mother's death, she tells her parents about her various moral dilemmas
and asks for their advice. After Mr. B. abducts her and imprisons her in his country house, she
continues to write to her parents, but since she does not know if they will ever receive her letters,
the writings are also considered a diary. The book can be divided into two parts.
The plot
Part 1
It tells the story of a beautiful 15-year old maidservant named Pamela Andrews who works as Lady
B's maidservant in Bedfordshire for many years. When the noblewomen dies, Pamela is much
grieved: she loved Lady B. because she had given her an education far beyond her means, and
Pamela is also worried about her future. Mr.B, Lady B’s son offers to let her remain in the
household, and Pamela accepts with gratitude. Mr. B is infatuated with her, first by her looks and
then her innocence and intelligence, but his high rank hinders him from proposing marriage.
He abducts her, locks her up in one of his estates, and attempts to seduce and rape her. She rejects
him continually, but starts to realize that she is falling in love with him. He intercepts her letters to
her parents; reading them, he becomes even more enamored by her innocence, intelligence, and
continuous escape attempts. Her virtue is eventually rewarded when he sincerely proposes an
equitable marriage to her.
Part 2
In the novel's second part, Pamela accepts to marry Mr.B, she and her family was poor and it could
be a solution for their poverty but when Mr.B liberated her and she is coming home, she realizes she
loves him. So when Mr.B is ill she accepts to come back. Pamela and Mr. B talk of their future as
husband and wife and she agrees with everything he says. She explains why she doubted him. This
is the end of her trials: she is more submissive to him and owes him everything now as a wife. Mr.
Williams is released. Pamela. Pamela's father comes to take her away but he is reassured when he
sees Pamela happy. So they attempt to build a successful relationship with him and to settle into
upper-class society.
This part shows Pamela and Mr.B’s married life with troubles, treason and quarrels . All admire
Pamela and she is shown like a model wife and the gentry who once despised Pamela now praise
her, but Mr.B too is in the end converted to a sober well-regulated life.
The Pamela character
In this novel, Pamela reveals in her journal and letters the intimate details of her everyday life in
language that is simple, straightforward, and conversational. This approach makes the novel easy to
read and understand. Moreover, it creates a closeness with the reader, as if he or she were the
recipient of the letters or the reader of the journal.
Pamela, of course, is a lower-class female servant.
She is a devoted daughter to her impoverished parents to whom she writes a prodigious number of
letters and whom she credits with the moral formation that prompts her to defend her purity at all
costs. A pretty servant girl was easy prey for a wealthy master who took a fancy to her. In the face
of the squire's attempts to seduce her, Pamela never once gives in to him. She turns down his offers
of sums of money, servants at her beck and call, and other favors in order to preserve her virtue.
Although she discovers after a time that she loves him, she refuses to bed with him outside of
marriage.
The triumph of the middle class
One of the great social facts of Richardson’s day was the intermingling of the aspirant middle class
with the gentry and aristocracy. The eighteenth century was a golden age of social climbing and
thereby of satire, but Richardson was the first novelist to turn his serious regard on class difference
and class tension. Pamela is a servant girl who has managed to climb the ladder of classes. There
was a point in Pamela, in fact, to put forward the values of a middle class that prided itself on its
rectitude and morality as opposed to freer life-style of the nobles. “O Sir! my Soul is of equal
Importance with the Soul of a Princess; though my Quality is inferior to that of the meanest Slave.”
(Pamela, 158)
This exclamation, which Pamela makes in the course of a letter to Mr. Williams, expresses that the
moral life of the individual possesses an absolute value that transcends social distinctions. The
novel celebrates not just the marriage between Pamela and Mr B but also the union of England's
two classes: the nobles and the bourgeois.
The first psychological novel
The novel was praised for its psychological veracity and its moral influence on the readers. In fact
Pamela was the first psychological novel in English. A psychological novel is a work fiction which
places more than the usual amount of emphasis on the motives and on the circumstances. The
psychological novel is not content to state what happens but goes on to explain the motivation of
this action. The psychological novel can be called a novel of the "inner man".
In composing Pamela, Richardson wanted to explore human psychology in ways that no other
writer had before. His narrative method, in which Pamela records her thoughts as they occur to her
and soon after the events that have inspired them, he called “writing to the moment”. This study of
character's feelings was achieved by Richardson through a clever and innovative use of epistolary
technique. The letters are in fact full of incidents, and the dialogues are mostly in direct speech.
This corresponds to Richardson's idea of letter-writing which was that the characters write down
their thoughts and feeling after the incident has occurred. Richardson's epistolary novels combine
the urgency and direct speech of drama with an accurate and detailed description of people, places
and objects.
Criticism and parody/Pamela and Shamela
Pamela was immediately and extremely popular with the reading public. Richardson initially also
enjoyed critical acclaim and was considered one of the most important English novelists. His
contemporaries focused almost exclusively on his moral teachings, and most praised the author for
his judgment and honesty. Richardson's stated purpose in his works was moral instruction and thus
when his sincerity was eventually questioned, and his work attacked by Fielding in parodies
including Shamela, Richardson defended himself with explanations and revisions, particularly in
the third edition of Pamela. The heroine of Pamela is a paragon of virtue, a servant girl who resists
the sexual advances of her master, and Richardson's purpose with the novel was to “cultivate the
Principles of Virtue and Religion in the Minds of the Youth of Both Sexes.” Fielding's heroine
Shamela, on the other hand, is an artful minx who uses her “Virtue” to rise in the world. By poking
fun at every aspect of Richardson's method and message, Fielding exposes the hypocrisy of
contemporary mores. The work is more than a simple parody of Richardson, however, as Fielding
lampoons political figures, the clergy, and contemporary writers. So the differences between the
two women are obvious. Pamela was created as a pinnacle of virtue and steadfastness. She
withstands both temptation and difficult circumstances.
Conversely, Shamela presents only a mirage of virtue. and if she is doing the wrong thing, at least
she is doing something.
Samuel Richardson’s revision
The popularity of Richardson’s novel led to much public debate about the novel’s message and
style. Richardson responded to some of the criticisms by revising the novel for each new edition; he
even created a “reading group” of women to advise him.
Also, after the criticism, he published a sequel to the novel “Pamela in her Exalted
Condition (1741)” with a revision of the original romance. Some of the most significant changes
that he made were his alterations to Pamela’s vocabulary. In the first edition her diction is that of a
lower-class maid, but in later editions Richardson made her more linguistically middle-class by
removing the lower-class idioms from her speech. In this way, he made her marriage to Mr. B less
scandalous as she appeared to be more his equal in education.
A curiosity about the novel concerns that Samuel Richardson claims that the story was based on a
true incident related to him by a friend about 25 years before, but did not identify the principals.
Pamela and the women’s condition
The term feminism indicates the movement, which occurred around 1960,when women tried
to get equal rights with men.
The rededication of rights started long time before. In fact already in the XVII century, women tried
to prove to be equal to men.
So the dinners and meetings in the halls of middle high bourgeoisie, were no longer occasions only
for fun but also to think about, moral, truths and habits of life of woman and men.
Ladies wrote and discussed about the love between woman and man, this love had to be purely
spiritual, about the significance of marriage and some of them believed that it was unnecessary.
So a multitude of books and writings, which speak about the feminist ideas spread in all Europe.
The myth of the witches spread to stop the expansion of these ideas, which were considered too
dangerous for the society. So all women who were considered dangerous were burned at the stake.
At the beginning of XVIII century, the woman tried to marry for adapting to the society.
Only with the spread of Enlightenment ideas the feminism found new vigour.
As in the XVII century the salons were meeting places for man
ladies and philosophers; but contrary to the previous century they
don't discuss about society but about Science and Philosophy. So
"women philosophers" was born. But soon the woman philosophers'
importance were overcome by the philosophers' importance that
come to this meeting (Voltaire, Rousseau e Diderot); the woman,
who managed their importance, were few. One of theme was De
Gouges, a French dramatist who lived during the French
Revolution. She fought for the woman's rights. she is the best
example of feminist woman of XVIII. She wrote in 1791,
the declaration of the rights of women and the city.
At the end of the XVIII most novels were intended for a female
audience, that at the beginning of the XIV century enters the world
of work.
Books, like Samuel Richardson's Pamela who told of the beautiful
Pamela, were born. In particular in this novel presents a model
of female life, where women triumph over oppression of the
male, the leader. a woman who can marry the man she loves with an
act of rebellion but in the end reconciled with the morality of the time.
Even if in the XVII-XVIII centuries women got great conquests feminism's victory came only in
XX century. The woman returned to the fore, especially in the role of worker, emerged as a social
figure free from the male power.