Unfolding through letters, the novel depicts with much feeling Pamela's struggles to decide how to respond to her would-be seducer and to determine her place in society. Samuel Richardson (1689-1761), a prominent London printer, is considered by many the father of the English novel, and Pamela the f[...]

Pressured by her unscrupulous family to marry a wealthy man she detests, the young Clarissa Harlowe is tricked into fleeing with the witty and debonair Robert Lovelace and places herself under his protection. Lovelace, however, proves himself to be an untrustworthy rake whose vague promises of marri[...]

'Pamela under the Notion of being a Virtuous Modest Girl will be introduced into all Familes,and when she gets there, what Scenes does she represent? Why a fine young Gentleman endeavouring to debauch a beautiful young Girl of Sixteen.' (Pamela Censured, 1741) One of the most spectacular successes [...]

Written entirely in letters, this novel conveys the nuances and tensions only present in personal epistolary form. The virtuous but self-deceiving Clarissa and the charming villain Lovelace haunt the imagination as fully as Romeo and Juliet or Tristan and Isolde.[...]

First scholarly edition of Samuel Richardson's correspondence with Aaron Hill, Richardson's closest literary adviser for many years, and his daughters.[...]

Since the publication of his novel Pamela; or Virtue Rewarded in 1740, Samuel Richardson's place in the English literary tradition has been secured. But how can that place best be described? Over the three centuries since embarking on his printing career the 'divine' novelist has been variously unde[...]