ABSTRACT
At the beginning of the year 1740 the English novel was in its infancy: fifteen years later three great novelists, Richardson, Fielding and Smollett, had published almost all their major works. This transformation is remarkable in that the novel as it took shape in those years was virtually a new form, yet was extremely diverse in character. Samuel Richardson, a successful printer, took to novel-writing by accident when two booksellers invited him to compile a volume of letters for the guidance of people inexperienced with their pens. The vitality of the book resides in Pamela’s strength of character, her bold self-defence, and her rigorous distinction between those areas in which a maid owes dutiful obedience to her master and those in which personal integrity demands an equality of relationship between individuals whatever their respective social status.
