История литературы / 21. Samuel Richardson

Samuel Richardson was an 18th-century English writer and printer. Born in Dorbishire, father-joiner. He received little education, but was fond of reading. Like Walter Scott he became famous as a story-teller. He was a book-seller & did not come to novel-writing until he was 50. There was new reading public composed chiefly of women, belonging to middle-classes. Richardson featured it. We take into consideration his 3 novels: “Pamela”, “Clarissa Harlow”, Sir Charles Grandison”. All the novels are written in the same manner & not only the manner, the atmosphere & the method were the same. The 3 novels were told in letters & the letters were of immense length. The stories themselves were thin & slight. One can’t read Richardson for the story but for the sentiment, which is the key. He was the 1^st to introduce the epistolary genre. If to summarize his approach to writing-giving moral instructions,maxims,cautions and reflexions. He did this for both men and women. All in all he wrote 19 bulky novels. His merit-he sensed the appearance of a new reader. At that time women learnt to read, became interested in lit-re. R was able to capture their interest,to satisfy the interest of a puritan woman, especially from a middle-class family(they observed puritan traditions very closely). Richardson was a skilled letter writer and his talent traces back to his childhood. Throughout his whole life, he would constantly write to his various associates. Richardson saw the act of letter writing as showing manners, believed that letters could be used to accurately portray character traits, not just to inform. The characters of Pamela, Clarissa, and Grandison are revealed in a personal way, with the first two using the epistolary form for "dramatic" purposes, and the last for "celebratory" purposes. So the reader could experience tension, practically the same as the ch-rs in the nvel. In his first novel, Pamela, (bulky because of the description of the wedding) he explored the various complexities of the title character's life, and the letters allow the reader to witness her develop and progress over time. The novel was an experiment, but it allowed Richardson to create a complex heroine through a series of her letters. The main character of his 1st novel "Pamela" was a servant girl, who after the death of her mistress was seduced by her young master. But she showed such a strength of spirit&she was so clever that she was able to avoid the importunity of her master. She suffered a lot. Pamela used marry tricks to escape from him. She did it successfully & at last he married her. Analyzing her behavior we understand that she is not that innocent as she pretended to be. Once in Lincolnshire, Pamela finds the motherly Mrs. Jervis replaced with a new bedfellow, Mrs. Jewkes. - Now I will give you a picture of this wretch! She is a broad, squat, pursy, fat thing, quite ugly, if anything human can be so called; about forty years old. She has a huge hand, and an arm as thick—I never saw such a thick arm in my life. Her nose is flat and crooked, and her brows grow down over her eyes; a dead, spiteful, grey, goggling eye: and her face is flat and broad; and as to colour, looks as if it had been pickled a month in saltpetre. I dare say she drinks. She has a hoarse man-like voice, and is as thick as she’s long; and yet looks so deadly strong, that I am afraid she would dash me at her foot in an instant, if I were to vex her. So that with a heart more ugly than her face, she is at times, (especially when she is angry) perfectly frightful: and I shall be ruined to be sure, if heaven protects me not; for she is very very wicked. (152) At that time the readers swallowed the novel,women leked it,wanted another one. SR was the 1^st who shared emotion with a reader. He did it freely.

“Clarissa Harlow" is even a more sentimental novel. Was translated into many languages. She is young, beautiful, but lonely, though very much virtuous. She was 18, but depicted as a true woman. She is suffering from her relatives who're described as a cruel, rigid puritan family. She is seduced by Lovelace who cheated her & she can't live with it. Lovelace promises to marry her, but she refuses coz she thinks it to be immoral. The intrigues against Clarissa are so pervasive that she can't escape like Pamela. She becomes a victim of Lovelace & finally she dies. The public was shocked by the novel and many people asked Richardson to save Clarissa's life but he refused, Lovelace is killed at a duel. The story itself is not very much convincing. Let me go, said she: I am but a woman—but a weak woman—but my life is in my own power, though my own person is not—I will not be thus constrained. (This is a speech of Clarissa’s, reported by Lovelace, delivered in the interval between the rape and her escape. It defines both the restrictions placed on women and their power .-all women of this society, who are bound by moral tradition to their families, to their husbands, and to legal and social systems that offer them no control over their fates.) At that time Richardson was the only who could liberally share his emotions with the others. Richardson put a human heart under the microscope. His sentiment was their sentiment. He wanted to give his audience what they wanted. His “Sir Charles Grandison” is a portrait of a fine gentleman & Lovelace is the idea of a wicked man. Richardson shaped his characters accordingly. His strength as a story-teller lies not in the plot but in the steady movement of his story. “Sir Charles Grandison” – Richardson’s 3rd & weakest novel, was not very popular with the public. The book was a response to Henry Fielding's The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, which parodied the morals presented in Richardson's previous novels. There r 7 volumes that contain different descriptions of the surrounding world. The novel follows the story of Harriet Byron who is pursued by Sir Hargrave Pollexfen. After she rejects Pollexfen, he kidnaps her, and she is only freed when Sir Charles Grandison comes to her rescue. After his appearance, the novel focuses on his history and life, and he becomes its central figure. The novel follows an epistolary format similar to Richardson's previous novels, Clarissa and Pamela. Unlike those novels, Charles Grandison, the leading male character, is a morally good man and lacks the villainous intent that is manifested by the Lovelace or Mr B (characters of Clarissa and Pamela respectively). Richardson was motivated to create such a male figure because of the prompting of his many female friends who wanted a counterpart to the virtues exhibited by Richardson's female characters. Later critics believed that it is possible that Richardson's work failed because the story deals with a "good man" instead of a "rake". SR was criticized bec of the large novels, inability to construct a novel with lively interest. I his novels- total lack of humour, too sentimental analysis. But at the same time he had lovely conversations, he was the master of pathos. He revealed himself as a good judge. He knew the female ch-r of his time. His men ch-rs are far less convincing. He tried, but without any success to produce a slow-motion picture of human life. The following generations didn`t like it (boring for them to read 7 days=1 day of a ch-r). But at his time he was very much popular. He preserved the same factual approach as Defoe,some scholars think his name should follow the name of Defoe. His novels come to possess some characteristic features of a genre, Swift`s stories lack. At the same time his works can`t be considered novels proper, becheroines are too admirable , atmosphere that Richardson showed was an atmosphere of a hot house. Literature could not develop under such circumstances & needed a man who could smash two men in a hot house. “My heart and my hand shall never be separated.”  ― Samuel Richardson, Clarissa, or, the History of a You ng Lady “And pray, said I, walking on, how came I to be his Property? What right has he in me, but such as a Thief may plead to stolen Goods?---Why, was ever the like heard, says she!---This is downright Rebellion, I protest!” Pamela, 126 “O Sir! my Soul is of equal Importance with the Soul of a Princess; though my Quality is inferior to that of the meanest Slave.” Pamela, 158