“Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded” (Samuel Richardson - 1740)

THE FIRST ENGLISH BEST-SELLER Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded is an EPISTOLARY NOVEL, that is to say a novel made up of letters (thirty-two letters in all). It was Samuel Richardson’s first novel, first published in two volumes in November 1740 (the second edition came out in 1741). Pamela was an immediate success not only in England but also in Europe, so it was the first example of an English best-seller. Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded is a collection of introspective letters written in the first person by Pamela Andrews (the main character), a fifteen-year-old servant girl, to her parents and it also includes some pages taken from her journal. Pamela keeps a diary and frequently writes home to her poor parents, John and Elizabeth Andrews (“familiar letters”). The novel opens with the death of Pamela’s mistress, Lady B.; Pamela is now to go to work for Lady B.’s son, Mr B. After a short period of normality at Mr B’s Bedfordshire estate (eastern England), however, things start to get strange. In her letters and diary Pamela records her experiences, emotions, feelings and thoughts.

THE DEBATE ON “VIRTUE REWARDED” The reason for success was to be found in the theme of the novel: a poor fifteen-year-old girl dares not to give up to her master’s improper sexual advances in the name of her moral values until he marries her; finally she makes the young nobleman marry her on her own conditions (he must accept to lead a sober, Christian married life). To many readers, Pamela was a heroine and hers was the TRIUMPH OF VIRTUE; on the other hand, for some readers, Pamela wasn’t a virtuous girl but rather a clever and cunning young lady who tried to climb the social scale by marrying a rich man. Thus, the English public was divided into “Pamelists” and “anti-Pamelists”.

THE TRIUMPH OF THE MIDDLE CLASS Pamela put forward the values of a middle class that praised moral rectitude as opposed to the freer lifestyle of the nobles. When Pamela says “my soul is of equal importance with the soul of a princess” she is stating a Christian principle but she is especially asserting her right to be respected, apart from her social condition. The novel symbolically celebrates not only the marriage between Pamela and Mr B., first her persecutor and then her husband, but also the union of England’s most powerful classes: the aristocracy and the middle class. It was the middle class that forced the nobility to accept their beliefs and lifestyle.

THE FIRST PSYCHOLOGICAL NOVEL Sexual violence is always present or hidden in Richardson’s novels and the heroines’ feelings about her “persecutors” are not well-defined. This ambiguity makes Pamela the first psychological novel in English literature. This analysis of the characters’ feelings, emotions and inner motivations was achieved through an innovative use of the epistolary technique: the letters are full of events and the dialogues are mainly in direct speech. This because Richardson wanted his characters (Pamela in this case) to write down their thoughts and feelings by themselves immediately after an incident (especially something unpleasant or unusual) had happened to them or a situation had taken place (this was Richardson’s idea of letter-writing).