User:Bishonen/Richardsonstub

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Pamela, or, Virtue Rewarded, illustration from the 1742 edition.
Pamela, or, Virtue Rewarded, illustration from the 1742 edition.
  • Samuel Richardson, Pamela, or, Virtue Rewarded (novel, 1740) tells in the first person the story of the virtuous lady's maid Pamela and the modest and agonized delicacy, yet determination, with which she rebuffs and reforms her aristocratic would-be seducer Mr B and is rewarded with marriage to him. Told through Pamela's probingly introspective letters and diary, Pamela is generally considered a seminal influence on the direction the novel form was to take towards psychological analysis and self-examination. The illustration right shows Mr B snatching Pamela's first letter to her parents and reading it.