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A review by wille44
Pamela by Samuel Richardson
0.5
Samuel Richardson's literary contributions have probably aged the worst of any 18th century writer. No one can deny his titanic influence, he was credited with popularizing the sentimental novel, a novel as a vehicle to generate feeling for the characters, a focus that became a hallmark of the medium. Unfortunately Richardson was very much shaped in the Neoclassical mold of his era and his preachy, static, unending books earned a good deal of scorn and parody in his own time to go along with his massive popularity. He insisted on writing to instruct first and entertain second, and coming to his books now finds the latter dissipated entirely, and the former outdated and useless.
Pamela synthesizes the worst of these traits, a story about a girl enduring repeated sexual assault until her refusal to have a good time convinces the abuser to marry her. Historical context would paint this tale as one that was actually somewhat progressive for it's era, but obviously Richardson's heavy handed insistence on women being virtuous while absolving men of this same requirement is useless for any contemporary reading. This leaves us with the form as the point of interest, but the story is paced disastrously, is crushingly repetitive, it's characters are vehicles of moral teaching first and human second (or not very at all) and his epistolary style is not well done even by its own limited standards, reading more like journal entries (and are literally that for a good portion) rather than providing any dynamic conversational back and forth.
His next novel, Clarissa, while being three times as long and also deeply flawed, has a significantly better moral message and theme, characters that are fleshed out and examined with greater depth and affect, stretches the epistolary format to it's creative limit, and has a much more satisfying build up and payoff with its plot movements. All that being said it's still a rough read, but it's leagues better than Pamela, which absolutely no one should be reading. It provides nothing academically interesting or relevant that its successor doesn't do significantly better, and would be better left lost to time along with Richardson's later works.
Pamela synthesizes the worst of these traits, a story about a girl enduring repeated sexual assault until her refusal to have a good time convinces the abuser to marry her. Historical context would paint this tale as one that was actually somewhat progressive for it's era, but obviously Richardson's heavy handed insistence on women being virtuous while absolving men of this same requirement is useless for any contemporary reading. This leaves us with the form as the point of interest, but the story is paced disastrously, is crushingly repetitive, it's characters are vehicles of moral teaching first and human second (or not very at all) and his epistolary style is not well done even by its own limited standards, reading more like journal entries (and are literally that for a good portion) rather than providing any dynamic conversational back and forth.
His next novel, Clarissa, while being three times as long and also deeply flawed, has a significantly better moral message and theme, characters that are fleshed out and examined with greater depth and affect, stretches the epistolary format to it's creative limit, and has a much more satisfying build up and payoff with its plot movements. All that being said it's still a rough read, but it's leagues better than Pamela, which absolutely no one should be reading. It provides nothing academically interesting or relevant that its successor doesn't do significantly better, and would be better left lost to time along with Richardson's later works.