Migliori Libri di Samuel Richardson

Una cameriera sedicenne, di grande bellezza e solida virtù, è innamorata del padrone ma resiste ai suoi tentativi di seduzione: riesce così a condurlo al matrimonio. Una donna, di umile condizione sociale, afferma la parità tra maschi e femmine in materia di etica sessuale: la sconvolgente novità della trama di Pamela procurò immediatamente al romanzo un successo di pubblico che dura ancora. Richardson rappresenta infatti con vivacità e sottigliezza le emozioni della protagonista e trova nel romanzo epistolare la forma più adatta per esprimere quel “sentimento” che il Settecento, secolo dei Lumi, andava proprio allora scoprendo. Introduzione di Masolino d’Amico.

Pamela in Her Exalted Condition follows the heroine of Richardson’s hugely popular first novel into married life. In the process, he explores both the experience of women beyond the stage of courtship and provides a fascinating insight into the social and cultural life of the mid eighteenth century. The first ever scholarly edition of the novel, this volume features a critically edited text, general and textual introductions, full annotations and textual apparatus. Appendices describe all the editions published in Richardson’s lifetime as well as early nineteenth-century editions. The original illustrations from the popular octavo edition of 1742 and Richardson’s index are reproduced. The publication of this novel in the Cambridge edition allows the sequel to Pamela to take its rightful place in the critical study of Richardson’s development as a novelist.

‘Pamela under the Notion of being a Virtuous Modest Girl will be introduced into all Familes,and when she gets there, what Scenes does she represent? Why a fine young Gentleman endeavouring to debauch a beautiful young Girl of Sixteen.’ (Pamela Censured, 1741) One of the most spectacular successes of the burgeoning literary marketplace of eighteeent-century London, Pamela also marked a defining moment in the emergence of the modern novel. In the words of one contemporary, it divided the world ‘into two different Parties, Pamelists and Antipamelists’, even eclipsing the sensational factional politics of the day. Preached up for its morality, and denounced as pornography in disguise, it vividly describes a young servant’s long resistance to the attempts of her predatory master to seduce her. Written in the voice of its low-born heroine, but by a printer who fifteen years earlier had narrowly escaped imprisonment for the seditious output of his press, Pamela is not only a work of pioneering psychological complexity, but also a compelling and provocative study of power and its abuse. Based on the original text of 1740, from which Richardson later retreated in a series of defensive revisions, this edition makes available the version of Pamela that aroused such widespread controversy on its first appearance. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World’s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford’s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.