Long touted as the first English novel, or at the least the first epistolary novel, Samuel Richardson’s Pamela has since had both those positions questioned in light of work by earlier writers, most notably Aphra Behn. It remains of extreme importance, however, in the novel’s development and proved a wildly popular work.
The novel consists entirely of correspondence on the part of its title character, Pamela Andrews, a young servant prey to the sexual advances by her new master Mr. B., son to her recently deceased mistress. Unceasingly objectified by Mr. B. and his helpful servants Mrs. Jewkes and Monsieur Calbrand, Pamela eventually is driven from her home by their lusty pursuits. Under a type of house arrest in her new location, and separated from family and friends, Pamela struggles to retain her high moral purpose.
In a relationship interesting to feminist critics as evidence of the stereotypical competition between females for male approval, Mrs. Jewkes gains Pamela’s trust and steals her journals. Mr. B. reads the journals, becomes privy to Pamela’s ideology, and enacts the role of one in complete agreement with her high morality, eventually proposing marriage.
However, Richardson extends the conflict as an unknown correspondent warns Pamela of her master’s duplicity. She despairs to her parents:
“What shall we say of this truly diabolical master! O, how shall I find words to paint my griefs, and his deceit! I have as good as confessed I love him; but, indeed, it was on supposing him good.—this, however, has given him too much advantage. But now I will break this wicked forward heart of mine, if it will not be taught to hate him! O, what a black dismal heart must he have!”
Mr. B. eventually “does right” by his one-time intended victim, and the two marry. The delighted Pamela transforms in the novel’s second portion into a suspicious wife who doubts her husband’s fidelity and the loyalty of his disapproving family and servants. She retains her moral beliefs, however, acting with a dignity that proves less engaging than did her emotionally expressed conflict over Mr. B.’s scandalous behavior in the novel’s first section. While Richardson seems to suggest that a partially reformed rake can make a fine husband, critics later pointed out that he cannot resolve the compromise of human values such a stance represents.
The novel’s domestic tension is credited with its success. A dominant appeal, according to William Sale, Jr., was Pamela’s representing the change in values evident in the 18th century. While society insisted that Pamela’s position as a servant meant she must conform to her master’s wishes, new forces supporting the development of a middle class urged an independence that made Pamela a new woman type. Her position as such should not be overemphasized, however, a point clearly made at the altar when Mr. B. presents her with a ring, and she replies, “Thank you, sir.” At the least, she served as a prototype for later, more fully realized heroines developed by novelists including George Meredith.
Society’s attempts to keep the real-life figures represented by Pamela “in their place” spawned entire fields of literary criticism that focused, in part, on such power structures in fiction, including not only feminist critics, but also Marxist and New Historical critics. The obvious sexual thrust of the novel also attracted the interest of later psychoanalytic critics.
Richardson came upon the idea for the novel from an instructional book he composed about proper letter-writing format. While such books were common, he included many more examples than had his predecessors, including several lengthy letters offering models to corresponding women. He offered 173 different epistle approaches, more than 100 of which focused on women’s interests and needs. Having no previous writing experience, Richardson confounded critics of later generations seeking to understand how he came to produce such an important work.
Its plotline may have been inspired by the letter example numbered 138, based on a true case Richardson knew involving a 12-year-old girl put to service who, when her mistress died three years later, drew the attention of the household’s young master, a man of “free principles.” With no particular model to follow, Richardson presented himself on the title page not as author but as “editor” of Pamela’s letters, thus suggesting reality in fiction, a remarkable and sustainable approach, also to be later imitated and refined into a movement in writing labeled realism.
Pamela proved crucial due to its narrative and characterization unity, a format that subsequent novels would imitate. Richardson himself continued the epistolary format in Clarissa (1747), but expanded his speakers to include multiple correspondents.
Furthermore, the value of a piece of literature may often be judged by the reaction it provokes, particularly from other writers, and Pamela’s inspiring the fledgling novelist Henry Fielding’s parody of Pamela, titled Shamela (1741), is a case in point. While modern readers may resent or find amusing Pamela’s stilted didactic style, marked by a high moral tone, melodrama, and sexism, critics agree on its unquestioned importance to the development of the novel. It retains a seminal position in academic literature programs and still appeals to aficionados of mid-18th-century fiction.
Bibliography
Sale, William, Jr. Introduction to Pamela, or, Virtue Rewarded, by Samuel Richardson. New York: W.W. Norton, 1958, v–xiv.