PAMELA
or
VIRTUE REWARDED
By Samuel Richardson
CONTENTS
Samuel Richardson, the first, in order of time, of the great English novelists,was born in 1689 and died at London in 1761. He was a printer by trade, androse to be master of the Stationers’ Company. That he also became a novelistwas due to his skill as a letter-writer, which brought him, in his fiftiethyear, a commission to write a volume of model “familiar letters” as an aid topersons too illiterate to compose their own. The notion of connecting theseletters by a story which had interested him suggested the plot of “Pamela”; anddetermined its epistolary form—a form which was retained in his later works.
This novel (published 1740) created an epoch in the history of English fiction,and, with its successors, exerted a wide influence upon Contine