Pamela: or, Virtue Rewarded

So I’m back to gearing up for PhD exams, and that means reading. Lots of reading. The book I just finished was Pamela: or, Virtue Rewarded. I confess I’d never even heard of this book until it appeared on my reading list, but I must be in good company. Only one library near me carried it, and the copy they had was a torn paperback.

What a far cry from 1740, the year Pamela was published. Back then it was Samuel Richardson’s first novel, and it was a smash hit. In fact many consider Richardson the father of the English novel, and Pamela the first modern novel. Huh.

The story was written originally as an example to the lower classes of excellent letter-writing technique, so the entire plot unfolds through letters. Richardson also intended his story as a conduct book. Oh, and I should mention that, though it was a best seller, Pamela was widely mocked. Henry Fielding (Tom Jones) even wrote a parody of it titled Shamela.

So what’s the plot? As told through Pamela’s point of view—expressed through writing to her parents or in her journal—the story unfolds of Pamela's response to her master, Mr. B, making unwanted sexual advances. She rejects him continuously, so he goes so far as to kidnap her to try to change her mind. Still, as the title suggests, eventually her virtue wins him over, and he proposes an equitable marriage. Can you imagine how nasty this must have seemed 250 years ago?

It may sound like a quirky read, but I actually really liked this book. Especially the second half—the part where she’s no longer held hostage. In it I learned a lot about eighteenth-century class structure, vocabulary, manners, and values. And hey, no matter what people thought of his story, the author really could write.

What now? I rewind an additional 1,700 years and explore the world of ancient Rome. Next stop: Robert Graves’s Claudius, the God.
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