ABSTRACT
The simplicity of Samuel Richardson's tale aided the effect of surprise. He was, upon principle, unwilling to exhibit his favourite characters as greatly subject to violent passion of any kind, and was much disposed to dethrone Cupid, whom romance writers had installed as the literal sovereign of gods and men. In his time, the bonds of subordination in society were drawn very strictly, and he himself appears to have had high and exaggerated ideas of the importance of wealth and rank, as well as of domestic authority of every kind. Eight years after the appearance of Pamela, he published Clarissa, the work on which his fame as a classic of England will rest for ever. The friends and correspondents of him became even more importunate for the reformation of Lovelace, and the winding up the story by his happy union with Clarissa.
