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RICHARDSON, SAMUEL (1689-1761)

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Originally appearing in Volume V23, Page 302 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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RICHARDSON, See also:SAMUEL (1689-1761) , See also:English novelist, is a notable example of that " See also:late-flowering " sometimes applied to See also:Oliver See also:Goldsmith. See also:Born under See also:William and See also:Mary, the reign of the second See also:George was well advanced before, at fifty years of See also:age, he made his first serious See also:literary effort—an effort which was not only a success, but the See also:revelation of a new literary See also:form. He was the son of a See also:London joiner, who, for obscure reasons, probably connected with See also:Monmouth's See also:rebellion, had retired to an unidentified See also:town in See also:Derbyshire, where, in 1689, Samuel was born. At first intended for See also:holy orders, and having little but the See also:common learning of a private See also:grammar school—for the tradition that upon the return of the See also:family to the See also:metropolis he went to See also:Christ's See also:Hospital cannot be sustained—he was eventually, as some See also:compensation for a literary turn, apprenticed at seventeen to an Aldersgate printer named See also:John See also:Wilde. Here, like the typical " See also:good apprentice " of his See also:century, he prospered; became successively compositor, corrector of the See also:press, and printer on his own See also:account; married his See also:master's daughter according to See also:programme; set up See also:newspapers and books; dabbled a little in literature by compiling indexes and " honest dedications," and ultimately proceeded Printer of the See also:Journals of the See also:House of See also:Commons, Master of the Stationers' See also:Company, and See also:Law-Printer to the See also:King. Like all well-to-do citizens, he had his See also:city house of business and his " See also:country See also:box " in the suburbs; and, after a thoroughly " respectable " See also:life, died on the 4th of See also:July 1761, being buried in St See also:Bride's See also:Church, See also:Fleet See also:Street, See also:close to his See also:shop (now demolished), No. 11 See also:Salisbury See also:Court. To this uneventful and conventional career one would scarcely look for the See also:birth and growth of a fresh departure in fiction. And yet, although Richardson's manifestation of his literary See also:gift was deferred for See also:half a century, there is no life to which the Horatian " quails ab incepto " can be more appropriately applied. From his youth this moralist had moralized; from his youth—See also:nay, from his childhood—this See also:letter-writer had written letters; from his youth this . supreme delineator of the other See also:sex had been the confidant and counsellor of See also:women. In his boyhood he was secretary-See also:general to all the love-sick girls of the neighbourhood; at eleven he addressed a hortatory See also:epistle, stuffed with texts, to a See also:scandal-loving widow; and whenever it was possible to correspond with any one he was as `` corresponding " as even See also:Horace See also:Walpole could have desired. At last, when he was known to the See also:world only as a steady business See also:man, who was also a "dab at an See also:index" and an invaluable compiler of the " puff prefatory," it occurred to Mr See also:Rivington of St See also:Paul's See also:Churchyard and Mr See also:Osborn of Paternoster See also:Row, two See also:book-selling See also:friends who were aware of his epistolary gifts, to suggest that he should prepare a little See also:model letter-writer for such country readers " as " were unable to indite for themselves." Would it be any harm, he suggested in See also:answer, if he should also " instruct them how they should think and See also:act in common cases "?

His friends were all the more anxious that he should set to See also:

work. And thus originated his first novel of Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded. But not forthwith, as is sometimes supposed. Proceeding with the compilation of his model letter-writer, and seeking, in his own words, " to instruct handsome girls, who were obliged to go out on service . . . how to avoid the snares that might be laid against their virtue "—a danger which appears to have always abnormally preoccupied him—he came to recollect a See also:story he had heard twenty years earlier, and had often proposed to other persons for fictitious treatment. It occurred to him that it would make a book of itself, and might moreover be told wholly in the See also:fashion most congenial to himself, namely, by letters. Thereupon, with some domestic encouragement, he completed it in a couple of months, between the See also:roth of See also:November 1739 and the roth of See also:January 1940. In November 1740 it was issued by Messrs Rivington & Osborn, who, a few See also:weeks afterwards (January 1741), also published the model letter-writer under the See also:title of Letters written to and for Particular Friends, on the most Important Occasions. Both books were See also:anonymous. The letter-writer was noticed in the See also:Gentleman's See also:Magazine for January, which also contains a brief announcement as to Pamela, already rapidly making its way without waiting for the reviewers. A second edition, it was stated, was expected; and such was its popularity, that not to have read it was judged " as See also:great a sign of want of curiosity as not to have seen the See also:French and See also:Italian dancers "—Le. Mme See also:Chateauneuf and the Fausans, who were then delighting the town.

In See also:

February a second edition duly appeared, followed by a third in See also:March and a See also:fourth in May. At public gardens ladies held up the book to show they had got it; Dr See also:Benjamin Slocock of See also:Southwark openly commended it from the See also:pulpit; See also:Pope praised it; and at See also:Slough, when the heroine triumphed, the enraptured villagers rang the church bells for joy. The other See also:volume of " See also:familiar letters"' consequently See also:fell into the background in the estimation of its author, who, though it went into several See also:editions during his lifetime, never acknowledged it. Yet it scarcely deserves to be wholly neglected, as it contains many useful details and much shrewd See also:criticism of See also:lower See also:middle-class life. For, the exceptional success of Pamela there was the obvious excuse of novelty. See also:People were tired of the old " mouthy " romances about impossible people doing impossible things. Here was a real-life story, which might happen to any one—a story which aroused curiosity and arrested See also:attention—which was not exclusively about " high life," and which had, in addition, a moral purpose, since it was avowedly " published in See also:order to cultivate the principles of virtue and See also:religion in the minds of the youth of both sexes." Whether it had exactly this effect, or owed its good See also:fortune chiefly to this See also:proclamation, may be doubted. The heroine in humble life who resists the licentious advances of her master until he is forced to marry her, does not entirely convince us that her watchful prudence and keen See also:eye for the See also:main See also:chance have not, in the See also:long run, quite as much to do with her successful See also:defence as her boasted innocence and purity. Nor is the book without passages which more than See also:smack of an unpleasant pruriency. Nevertheless, in its extra-See also:ordinary gift of See also:minute See also:analysis; in its intimate knowledge of feminine See also:character; in the cumulative See also:power of its shuffling, loose-shod See also:style, and, above all, in the unquestionable earnestness and sincerity of the writer, Pamela had qualities which—particularly in a dead See also:season of letters—sufficiently account for its favourable reception by the contemporary public. Such a popularity, of course, was not without its draw-backs. That it would See also:lead to See also:Anti-Pamelas, censures of Pamela and all the spawn of See also:pamphlets which See also:spring See also:round the track of a sudden success, was to be anticipated.

One of the results to which its rather sickly morality gave rise was the See also:

Joseph See also:Andrews (1742) of See also:Fielding (q.v.). But there are two other See also:works prompted by Pamela which need brief See also:notice here. One is the See also:Apology for the Life of Mrs Shamela Andrews, a See also:clever and very See also:gross piece of raillery which appeared in See also:April 1741, and by which Fielding is supposed to have preluded to, Joseph Andrews. FieIding's own works contain no reference- to Shamela. But' Richardson in his See also:Correspondence, both printed and unprinted, roundly attributes it to the writer who was to be his See also:rival; and it is also assigned to Fielding by other contemporaries (Hist. See also:MSS. 'Commn., Kept. 12, App. Pt. Iii. p. 204). All that can be said is, that Fielding's authorship cannot be proved.

If it could, it would go far to justify the after animosity of Richardson to Fielding—much farther, indeed, than what Richardson described as the " lewd and ungenerous engraftment " of Joseph Andrews. The second noteworthy result of Pamela was Pamela's Can-duct in High Life (See also:

September 1741), a See also:spurious sequel by John See also:Kelly of the Universal Spectator. Richardson tried to prevent its See also:appearance, and, having failed, set about two volumes of his own, which followed in See also:December, and professed to depict his heroine " in her exalted See also:condition." But' the public See also:interest in Pamela had practically ceased with her See also:marriage, and the author's continuation, like other continuations—particularly continuations prompted by extraneous circumstances—' attracted no permanent attention. About 1744 we begin to hear something of the progress of Richardson's second and greatest novel, Clarissa; or, the See also:History of a See also:Young See also:Lady, usually miscalled Clarissa Harlowe. The first edition was in seven volumes, two of which came out in November 1747, two more in April 1748 and the last three in December. Upon the title-See also:page of this, of which the See also:mission was as edifying as that of Pamela, its See also:object was defined as showing the distresses that may attend the misconduct both of parents and See also:children in relation to marriage. Virtue, in Clarissa, is not " rewarded," but hunted down and outraged. The heroine, no longer an opportunist servant-girl, is a most pure, refined and beautiful young woman, invested with every attribute to attract and See also:charm, while her pursuer, See also:Lovelace, the libertine See also:hero of the book—a personage of singular dash and vivacity, in spite of his worthlessness—is See also:drawn with extraordinary tenacity of power. The wronged Clarissa eventually See also:dies of grief, and her See also:cold-blooded betrayer, whom strict See also:justice would have hanged, i' considerately killed in a See also:duel by her soldier See also:cousin. Of the See also:genius of the story there can be no doubt. Nor is there any doubt as to the ability shown in the delineation of the two See also:chief characters, to whom the See also:rest are merely subordinate. The chief drawbacks of Clarissa are its merciless prolixity (seven volumes, which only See also:cover eleven months); the fact that (like Pamela) it is told by letters; and a certain haunting and uneasy feeling that many of the heroine's obstacles are only molehills which should have been readily surmounted.

As to its success, accentuated as this was by its piecemeal method of publication, there has never been any question. Clarissa's sorrows set all See also:

England sobbing, and her fame and her See also:fate spread rapidly to the See also:Continent. - Between Clarissa and Richardson's next work appeared the Tom See also:Jones of Fielding--a rival by no means welcome to the See also:elder writer, although a rival who generously (and perhaps penitently) acknowledged Clarissa's rare merits. Pectus inaniter angit Irritat, mulcet, falsis terroribus implet Ut Magus," Fielding had written in the Jacobite's See also:Journal. But even' this could not See also:console Richardson for the popularity of the " spurious brat " whom Fielding had made his hero, and his next effort was the depicting of a genuine See also:fine gentleman—a task to which he was incited by a' See also:chorus of feminine worshippers. In the History of See also:Sir See also:Charles Grandison, " by the Editor of Pamela and Clarissa" (for he still preserved the fiction of anonymity), he essayed to draw a perfect model of manly character and conduct. In the See also:pattern presented there is, however, too much See also:buckram, too much ceremonial—in See also:plain words, too much priggishness—to make him the de-sired exemplar of propriety in excelsis. Yet he is not entirely a failure, still less is. he to be regarded as no more than " the condescending suit of clothes " by which See also:Hazlitt unfairly defines See also:Miss See also:Burney's See also:Lord Orville. When Richardson delineated Sir Charles Grandison he was at his best, and his experiences and opportunities for inventing such a character were infinitely greater than they had ever been before. And he lost nothing of his gift for portraying the other sex. Harriet See also:Byron, Clementina dells Porretta and even See also:Charlotte Grandison, are no whit behind Clarissa and her friend Miss See also:Howe. Sir Charles Grandison, in fine, is a far better book than Pamela, although M.

See also:

Taine regarded the hero as only See also:fit to be stuffed and put in a museum. Grandison was published in 1753, and by this See also:time See also:Richard-son was sixty-four. Although the book was welcomed as warmly as its predecessors, he wrote no other novel, contenting himself instead with indexing his works, and compiling an See also:anthology of the " See also:maxims," " cautions " and " instructive sentiments they contained. To these things, as a professed moralist, he had always attached the greatest importance. He continued to correspond relentlessly with a large circle of worshippers, mostly women, whose counsels and fertilizing sympathy had not a little contributed to the success of his last two books. He was a See also:nervous, highly strung little man, intensely preoccupied with his See also:health and his feelings, hungry for praise when he had once tasted it, and afterwards unable to exist without it; but apart from these things, well meaning, benevolent, honest, industrious and religious. Seven vast See also:folio volumes of his correspondence with his lady friends, and with a few men of the Young and See also:Aaron See also:Hill type, are pre-served in the See also:Forster Library at See also:South See also:Kensington. Parts of it only have been printed. There are several good portraits of him by Joseph Highmore, two of which are in the See also:National Portrait See also:Gallery. Richardson is sometimes styled the " See also:Father of the English Novel," a title which has also been claimed for See also:Defoe. It would be more accurate to See also:call him the father of the novel of sentimental analysis. As Sir See also:Walter See also:Scott has said, no one before. had dived so deeply into the human See also:heart.

No one, moreover, had brought to the study of feminine character so much prolonged See also:

research, so much See also:patience of observation, so much interested and indulgent See also:apprehension, as this twittering little printer of Salisbury Court. That he did not more materially See also:control the course of fiction in his own country was probably owing to the new direction which was given to that fiction by Fielding and See also:Smollett, whose method, roughly speaking, was synthetic rather than See also:analytic. Still, his See also:influence is to be traced in See also:Sterne and See also:Henry See also:Mackenzie, as well as in Miss Burney and Miss See also:Austen, both of whom, it may be noted, at first adopted the epistolary form. But it was in See also:France, where the sentimental See also:soil was ready for the dressing, that the analytic See also:process was most warmly welcomed. Extravagantly eulogized by the great critic, See also:Diderot, modified with splendid variation by See also:Rousseau, copied (unwillingly) by See also:Voltaire, the See also:vogue of Richardson was so great as to tempt some See also:modern French critics to seek his See also:original in the Marianne of a contemporary See also:analyst, See also:Marivaux. As . a See also:matter of fact, though there is some unconscious consonance of manner,. there is nothing whatever to show that the little-lettered author of Pamela, who was also ignorant of French, had the slightest knowledge of Marivaux or Marianne. In See also:Germany Richardson was even more popular than in France. See also:Gellert, the fabulist, translated him; See also:Wieland, See also:Lessing, See also:Hermes, all imitated him, and See also:Coleridge detects him even in the Robbers of See also:Schiller. What was stranger still, he returned to England again under another form. Having given a fillip to the French comedie larmoyante, that See also:comedy crossed the channel as the sentimental comedy of See also:Cumberland and Kelly, which, after a brief career of prosperity, received its See also:death-See also:blow at the hands of Goldsmith and See also:Sheridan. A selection from Richardson's Correspondence was published by Mrs A. L.

See also:

Barbauld in 1804, in six volumes, with a valuable Memoir. See also:Recent lives are by Miss See also:Clara L. See also:Thomson, 19oo, and by See also:Austin See also:Dobson (" Men of Letters "), 1902. A convenient reprint of the novels, with copies of the old illustrations by See also:Stothard, See also:Edward Burney and the rest, and an introducton by Mrs E. M. M. McKenna, was issued in 1901 in 20 volumes. (A.

End of Article: RICHARDSON, SAMUEL (1689-1761)

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