Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded is an epistolary novel by Samuel Richardson, first published in 1740. It tells the story of a maid named Pamela whose master, Mr. B., makes unwanted advances towards her. She rejects him continually, and her virtue is eventually rewarded when he shows his sincerity by proposing an equitable marriage to her. In the second part of the novel, Pamela attempts to accommodate herself to upper-class society and to build a successful relationship with him. The story was widely mocked at the time for its perceived licentiousness and it inspired Henry Fielding (among many others) to write two parodies: Shamela (1741), about Pamela's true identity; and Joseph Andrews (1742), about Pamela's brother.

Publishing History

Pamela was originally published anonymously in two volumes in November 1740. A revised edition with 32 pages of puffery, that is, an introduction with glowing "Letters to the Editor" (for the most part written by Richardson's friend Aaron Hill) and "Verses", was published in February 1741 and then three more revised editions followed that year. A two-volume sequel was published in December 1741, and a delux octavo edition of all four volumes appeared in 1742. Another two revisions of the first two volumes were published subsequently in 1746 and 1754, and then another edition of the complete four volumes came out in 1761 after Richardson's death. Further changes to the text by Richardson existed in the form of an interleaved copy of one of the octavo editions and these were instituted in the 1801 edition. Innumerable reprint editions have subsequently continued to appear ever since, but, as most of these omit the puffery and are based on the 1801 edition, none of these reproduce Pamela exactly as it would have appeared to early readers.

Conduct books and the novel

When Richardson began writing Pamela, he conceived of it as a conduct book. But as he was writing, the series of letters turned into a story. Richardson then decided to write in a different genre, the novel, which at the time was a new form. He attempted to instruct through entertainment. In fact, most novels from the middle of the eighteenth century and well into the nineteenth century, following Richardson's lead, claimed legitimacy through their ability to teach as well as to amuse.

Epistolarity

Epistolary novels, that is, novels written as a series of letters, were extremely popular during the eighteenth century and it was Richardson's Pamela that made them so. Richardson and other novelists of his time argued that the letter allowed the reader greater access to a character's thoughts - Richardson claimed that he was writing "to the moment," that is, that Pamela's thoughts were recorded nearly simultaneously with her actions.