womens fiction

_Pamela_ should be noted for more than its epistolarity. As Margaret Doody remarks in her recent introduction to different edition of Richardson's novel, _Pamela_ makes a lower-class female character the center of a romance. Through the young serving maid Pamela, Richardson introduces readers to the realism and psychological detail he goes on to develop and refine in _Clarissa_, as well as later novels. While this reader would hesitate to hold up Pamela as a radical or revolutionary figure for the above reasons, which is what Doody does in her reading of the novel, she certainly would not dismiss the novel or its heroine as quickly and completely as did the previous reviewer. Instead, this reader would suggest that other readeres see the repetitive nature of Pamela's style, her apparent vanity, and the moments of seemingly unintended comedy (as well as the deliberate moments of humor Richardson carefully does include) as features of the novel that mark the difficulty Ri! chardson might have had concocting this first novel and imagining a voice and style for its heroine. Pay attention to what Richardson _tries_ to do, as well as where and why he might seem to fail. Compare this novel to others that you've read from the eighteenth century and earlier. See the difference, even development, between _Pamela_ and _Robinson Crusoe_. Note the striking similarities between _Pamela_ and _Roxana_. Consider the ways in which Pamela and her many voices come from the hand of a master printer comissioned not to write a novel, but a guide to letter-writing. And note: the 1740 version of this novel looks a lot different from later versions that Richardson refined, changing Pamela's phrasing, as well as details like words in italics and the use of dashes. The result is two somewhat different _Pamela_s. Read the latter as Richardson's response to the barage of anti-Pamela writing that hit the presses almost immediately after his own novel first appeared in print! .

This is where it all started. Richardson gives this fast moving epistolary story a fun and predictable story of cat and mouse. The story is simple and short. Maiden is beautiful and is the center of attention by the rich aristocratic master. Retaining her virtue, she places her sentimentiality ahead of possible riches if she gives into the master's advances. Truely a common element of seduction in the Eighteenth century. In all respects, the reason to pick up this novel is Richardson's use of language and sentiments. This novel produces a great deal of reader participation. For one, the reader must decide which side he or she will side with. Siding with one or the other would produce a different outcome to the ending. This novel reads fast and is filled with great eighteenth-century vernacular language. Lots of insults and name calling are also included which are extremely funny. Calling this novel a "preview" to Richardson's masterpiece Clarissa is unjust. This is a masterpiece on its own and it will not disappoint with the first, second, or third reading.

Samuel Richardson is one of the most misunderstood and underappreciated novelists in the English language. His style of prose is a model for all students of English. It is very simple yet very musical. Look closely at each syllable-- rather, listen closely to each-- and you will find how beautifully they are gathered together. Samuel Johnson and Jane Austen are dangerous models for aspiring writers-- imitations usually fail. But Richardson's prose is the ideal guide for clarity of sense and beauty of sound.

The reader shouldn't worry that Richardson considered himself to be a moralist and that his intention was for _Pamela_ to be "instructional rather than literary." After all, this novel is a guilty pleasure more than anything else. Only the dullest mind would fail to detect the extra layer of meaning which runs through it. Yes-- _Pamela_ teaches virtue. Yet Pamela Andrews is an ironic character, and we the readers see what she and the other characters cannot see.

This irony is quite radical in many ways. It is brought about by Richardson's epistolary method. It's a sort of first-person narrative that takes advantage of the narrator's limited perspective. Pamela is a young girl with little experience and a certain fear of gaining more. Yet we can see the bigger picture, and whether it was Richardson's intent or not, the real truth lies there-- in what she doesn't know.

Not that Pamela is dishonest in her letters to her dear parents and others. No-- we sympathize with her, but at the same time find a certain entertainment in her distress. And Richardson *is* an intentionally comic author. His comedy resembles the stage of the time, or of a slightly earlier time, in the age of Congreve and Wycherley. More than once the reader will also be reminded of Mozart's Da Ponte operas-- comedies of situations as well as manners. Richardson's grotesque sketches of Mrs. Jewkes and other adults are also humorous.

Richardson the moralist? Perhaps. But also, Richardson the master of irony, of humor-- of realism. For an 18th century Puritan male, Richardson is remarkably sympathetic to the mindset of a fifteen year old female. It's understandable that she would be afraid. And young people often have an inflated sense of their own virtue. But in page after page, Pamela *is* a human being, and a rather perceptive and likeable one at that. She also happens to be one of the finest prose stylists of her age!

Henry Fielding was a savage critic of Richardson and in many ways the world has gone the direction of _Tom Jones_ rather than _Pamela_. Yet the truly progressive mind-- the mind open to many points of view, strange as well as mainstream-- should be able to find pleasure in Richardson's masterpiece. I'll take him at his word that he truly meant "Virtue" to be "Rewarded" but we all can believe he had another goal in mind-- to entertain. Some may feel Pamela whines too much, is too distrustful and indignant, but the point is that we ought to set aside the morality for a second (his and ours, puritan or otherwise) and wrap our brains around its eccentric humor (the true hallmark of the eighteenth century).

So if you should treat yourself to this classic novel, please do so for the beauty of the language, paying close attention to the way Richardson uses alliteration and varies the length of each sentence for maximum dramatic (and comic) effect, and letting yourself laugh at the ridiculous situations which Pamela finds herself in. If you do this, and take your time with each phrase, you will find every word to be a delicious dessert, not a moral duty.