Samuel Richardson helped establish the epistolary novel in English fiction, building long narratives from letters exchanged between characters. Pamela follows a young servant resisting the sexual pressure of her employer, Mr B, and has generated lasting debate about virtue, class, power and the novel's eventual marriage plot. Clarissa is much darker: through a vast correspondence, Clarissa Harlowe's conflict with her family and Robert Lovelace becomes a study of coercion, reputation and the limited choices available to women. Richardson's novels are slow, detailed and psychologically repetitive by modern standards because events are repeatedly interpreted by different letter writers. They belong to eighteenth-century fiction, epistolary novels and the history of the English novel, particularly for readers interested in interiority and social power. Read more Less
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