The Story Archive

Pamela

Samuel Richardson · 1740 CE · Novel · English · Enlightenment

A fifteen-year-old waiting-maid, left in the household of the young master when her mistress dies, writes home about his advances and finds herself held in a remote Lincolnshire house with her letters stitched into her petticoat. Richardson keeps the story entirely inside her own hand, written to the minute, so that feeling is reported while it is still happening. The sensation — sermons, waxworks, spin-offs and Fielding's parodies within the year — gave English fiction its first mass audience.

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Lineage

Attributes

Genre
RomancePsychological
Theme
Class & InequalityTemptationLoss of InnocenceLoveIndividual vs Society
Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
InnocentHeroineVillain / Tyrant
Plot structure
EpistolaryTrialRags to Riches
Symbol / motif
The LetterThe HouseThe Garment
Conflict
vs Personvs Society
Mode / tone
RealistRomantic
Culture / tradition
English

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