SAMUEL RICHARDSON ( )

Born in Derbyshire in A printer by trade, and rose to be master of the Stationers’ Company. Also became a novelist was due to his skill as a letter- writer. His first novel is Pamela or Virtue Rewarded. His father was a joiner( a type of carpenter) and his family were farmers. Married his employer’s daughter Martha and they had six children but all of them died in childhood. His other most popular works are Clarissa or History of Young Lady…. His last novel is the History of Sir Charles Grandison. Printed almost 500 different works, with magazines and journals. Died at London in 1761

PAMELA

Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded is an epistolary novel by Samuel Richardson, first published in It is one of the most famous stories ever written of male stratagems thwarted by female prudence. It relates a squire’s repeated attempts on the virtue of one of his late mother’s servants, and is told entirely in letters, written largely by the girl,Pamela, herself. Pamela displays such perfection in resisting her master’s advences that he ends by marrying her.

WHAT IS EPISTOLARY NOVEL? Epistolary Novel; that is, novels written as series of letters – were extremely popular during the eighteenth century and it was Richardson's Pamela that made them so. Richardson and other novelists of his time argued that the letter allowed the reader greater access to a character's thoughts. Richardson claimed that he was writing "to the moment", that is, that Pamela's thoughts were recorded nearly simultaneously with her actions.

ABOUT “PAMELA” Published in two volumes in A second volume to the novel was published some time later in The first epistolary novel of Samuel Richardson. 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. Detailed picture of English domestic life in the early part of eighteenth century. In particular, her “her zeal for housewifery” was included as a proper role of women in society. Represented “ Richardson’s insistence upon well-defined feminine roles” and was part of a common fear held during the 18th century that women were “ too bold”.

COMMENTS ON “PAMELA” Tassie Gwilliam deals with the very complicated issue of feminine duplicity. The historical shift of the eighteenth- century from overt misogyny toward the "Cult of the True Womanhood" has been linked to "women's presumed loss of productive work to an increase in leisure under capitalism, and thus to the new status of women as 'consumers rather than contributors to the household economy'" (104).

Gwilliam does an excellent job of exploring these issues in depth as they relate directly to Samuel Richardson and to his novel, Pamela. "In Pamela Richarson attempts to legitimize possible means of self-display and self-exploration for women, while confronting the compromise and contortion necessary for living within a system that so strictly controls and limits women's possibilities" (128).

Catherine Gimelli Martin believes that Pamela retains the passivity associated with the role of the bride, but at the same time uses male discourse to present her self to the world. Pamela inverts traditional gender norms by "transferring female terms into male and male into female" (105).

LITERARY SIGNIFICANCE Pamela was the bestseller of its time. It was read by countless buyers of the novel and was also read aloud in groups. The novel was also integrated into sermons as an exemplar. It was even an early “multimedia” event, producing Pamela-themed cultural artifacts such as prints, paintings, and a set of playing cards decorated with lines from Richardson's works.

RICHARDSON'S REVISIONS The popularity of Richardson’s novel led to much public debate over its 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. 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.

THE SUCCESS OF “ PAMELA” The close identification which the epistolary novel induced with the heroine in her distress and the unparalleled attention Richardson paid to the minutiae of daily life ravished his readers, while the pervasive tone of moral rectitude provided a convenient and much-needed rationale for the otherwise dubious taste for prose fiction. Pamela was a huge sucess and became something of a cult novel. By May 1741 it reached a fourth edition and was dramatized in Italy by Goldoni, as well as in England.

EXAMPLES FROM THE LETTERS

I was proceeding, and he said, a little hastily—Because you are a little fool, and know not what's good for yourself. I tell you I will make a gentlewoman of you, if you be obliging, and don't stand in your own light; and so saying, he put his arm about me, and kissed me! (From Letter XI)

Don't your heart ache for me?—I am sure mine fluttered about like a new-caught bird in a cage. O Pamela, said I to myself, why art thou so foolish and fearful? Thou hast done no harm! What, if thou fearest an unjust judge, when thou art innocent, would'st thou do before a just one, if thou wert guilty? Have courage, Pamela, thou knowest the worst! And how easy a choice poverty and honesty is, rather than plenty and wickedness. (From letter XVI)

When a master of his honour's degree demeans himself to be so free as that to such a poor servant as me, what is the next to be expected?—But your honour went farther, so you did; and threatened me what you would do, and talked of Lucretia, and her hard fate.—Your honour knows you went too far for a master to a servant, or even to his equal; and I cannot bear it. So I fell a crying most sadly. (From letter XVI)

It is very difficult to keep one's distance to the greatest of men, when they won't keep it themselves to their meanest servants. (From letter XVI)

I dropt a low courtesy, but said never a word. I dare say he knew me as soon as he saw my face: but was as cunning as Lucifer. He came up to me, and took me by the hand, and said, Whose pretty maiden are you?—I dare say you are Pamela's sister, you are so like her. So neat, so clean, so pretty! Why, child, you far surpass your sister Pamela! (From letter XXIV)

I coloured up to the ears at this word: but said, Yet, if I was the lady of birth, and he would offer to be rude first, as he has twice done to poor me, I don't know whether I would have him: For she that can bear an insult of that kind, I should think not worthy to be a gentleman's wife: any more than he would be a gentleman that would offer it. (From letter XXI)

Come in, fool, said he, angrily, as soon as he saw me; (and snatched my hand with a pull;) you may well be ashamed to see me, after your noise and nonsense, and exposing me as you have done. I ashamed to see you! thought I: Very pretty indeed!—But I said nothing. (From letter XVI)

THANKS FOR YOUR PARTICIPATION AND PATIENCE Havva Samancı and Hatice Yamalı