‘Poor Pamela’s Married At Last!’
Letitia Barbauld called Samuel Richardson’s 1740 novel Pamela ‘a new experiment’ in English literature, and to judge by its reception it was very successful.
1740
King George II 1727-1760
Letitia Barbauld called Samuel Richardson’s 1740 novel Pamela ‘a new experiment’ in English literature, and to judge by its reception it was very successful.
1740
King George II 1727-1760
In November 1740, printer Samuel Richardson (1689-1761) brought out a novel of his own, a series of letters entitled Pamela: or, Virtue Rewarded. He promised boldly ‘to cultivate the Principles of Virtue and Religion in the Minds of the Youth of both Sexes’, but trod a fine line and brought many a blush to the cheek of modesty before virtue was triumphant. It made him a celebrity overnight.
THUS it was that in age when the chief reward of virtue was held to consist in worldly advantages — in riches, in the command of comforts and luxuries, in a high social position, in fine houses and equipages — that the praises of the high morality of Richardson’s novel by his contemporaries were in some degree misapplied. ‘Pamela’ was recommended from the pulpit. One critic holds that if all other books were to be burnt, this book, next to the Bible, ought to be preserved. Another says, he would bring up his son to be virtuous by giving him ‘Pamela’ as soon as he could read. One eminent man, indeed, writes candidly to the author, that he understands the ladies complain that they cannot read the letters without blushing.* But the moral of the story was not an exalted one. Mrs Barbauld has truly said that “a novel written on the side of virtue was considered as a new experiment.”* It perfectly succeeded; for the virtue was not too refined or disinterested to be above the comprehension of the worldly-minded or the uneducated.
* Pamela is an ‘epistolary novel’ written in the form of correspondence; the idea of writing fiction in this form was not new, but the success of Richardson’s tale made the epistolary novel a Georgian fashion. The idea came when clients asked Richardson, as a printer, to mock up some letter templates. He told them that he would like the content to have some moral purpose, and the first germs of Pamela were sown. Epistolary novels became more rare in the later Georgian era but Mary Shelley’s
* Letitia Barbauld (1743-1825) also tells us that “Even at Ranelagh, those who remember the publication say, that it was usual for ladies to hold up the volumes of Pamela to one another, to shew they had got the book that every one was talking of.” Ranelagh Gardens was the trendiest new gathering-place, opened in 1742 as a competitor to the more established Vauxhall. Novelist Horace Walpole (1717-1797) also found Pamela all-absorbing. “I can send you no news” he wrote, in a now lost letter seen by Anna Seward (1742-1809); “the late singular novel is the universal, and only theme — Pamela is like snow, she covers every thing with her whiteness.” For Walpole’s impressions of Ranelagh, see Ranelagh Gardens.
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
Samuel Richardson published ‘Pamela’ in 1740. He hoped it would teach good morals. It was successful straightaway.
See if you can include one or more of these words in your answer.
IAim. IIEnjoy. IIIOvernight.