Samuel Richardson was an 18th century English novelist born in 1689. He came from a working class background but became a printer and master of the Stationers' Company. Richardson's first and most famous novel was Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded, published in 1740. Written entirely in letters mostly by the heroine Pamela, it tells the story of a servant resisting her master's advances and eventually marrying him. Pamela was hugely popular and influential, establishing the epistolary novel genre. It addressed contemporary debates around appropriate female behavior and roles. Richardson made revisions over editions to make Pamela appear more equal to her husband in social class.

2. SAMUEL RICHARDSON
(1689-1761)

3. • Born in Derbyshire in 1689.
• 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

4. PAMELA

5. • Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded is an epistolary
novel by Samuel Richardson, first published in
1740 .
• 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.

6. 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.

7. ABOUT “PAMELA”
• Published in two volumes in 1740.
• A second volume to the novel was published some time
later in 1742.
• 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”.

8. 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).

9. • 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).

10. • 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).

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. 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.

14. EXAMPLES FROM THE LETTERS

15. • 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)

16. • 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)

17. • 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)

18. • 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)

19. • 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)

20. • 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)

21. • 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)

22. THANKS FOR
YOUR PARTICIPATION AND PATIENCE 

Havva Samancı and Hatice Yamalı