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Summary
The novel Pamela came in full-fledged form in the eighteenth century in 1740 with Samuel Richardson. Richardson was asked to prepare a series of model letters for those who could not write for themselves. This humble task taught Richardson that he had at his finger's tips the art of expressing himself in letters. In the years that followed, he published three long works on which his reputation rests: Pamela, Clarissa and Sir Charles Grandiso.
The story that Richardson used in Pamela or Virtue Rewarded was told him by some acquaintance of his youth of a Mr. B., the owner of a great house who married a beautiful and virtuous young lady, one of his mother's maids. After the mother's death, the young squire had tried by all manner of temptations to seduce the girl and she had recourse to as many innocent stratagems to save herself. With little modification this is the story Richardson wrote in Pamela. Pamela is a virtuous maid servant who resists the attempts at seduction of the son of her late mistress. Pamela in a series of letters inform her parents of her condition. Pamela gives way to despair, and, like her original, tries to drown herself. During her confinement when she can no longer communicate with her parents, she records her experiences in a journal. This falls into the hands of the squire whose sensibilities are touched by her piety, her courage, and her virtue. He offers her marriage which Pamela gladly accepts.
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Critical Analysis
For the first time in fiction a character has been created. Pamela is so lifelike and natural that the reader is drawn by subtle sympathy into Pamela's world. The analysis of sentiment becomes the dominant motive with Richardson and is pursued with a minuteness and patience which gives to the English novel a psychological depth and prepares it for the psychological realism of the nineteenth century novel. Richardson's genius is revealed in the novelty of form in which he tells the narrative through letters. There is however a touch of middle class morality in the novel, but his realism in narration combined with a skill in dialogue gives him an established place in the history of the English novel.