"A fine sporting-piece for the great, a mere tennis-ball of fortune".
So does the young maidservant Pamela perceive herself having been carried off and confined by her wilful and impetuous master, Mr. B., whose designs on her are nothing if not dishonourable.
And yet, the pert and assertive Pamela in her "sweet simplicity.. honest artlessness...and amiable humility" shows a strength of character and a virtue which will indeed be rewarded in the end.
Richardson's revolutionary novel, written in the epistolary style, features a posturing hero/villain and an educated servant unwilling to settle for the lesser sexual morality expected of her class. As Mr. B. ultimately realises that "..her fine person made me a lover, but it was her mind that made me an husband", so this richly comic, melodramatic but sharply critical tale of the misuse of power, freedom and social status shows the emotional shift from fear and dislike of ill-usage to affection and concern, and from actions initiated by force of will to those motivated by love.
All ends happily for Pamela and Mr. B., and ultimately the reader can sigh in relief and rejoice with them at their good fortune, but we're a long time getting there and it's not only Pamela who fears the situation will never be resolved. But it's a happy book with a nicely satisfying ending, and Pamela's spirit is to be admired while Mr. B moves from "I cannot live without you and since the thing is gone so far, I will not!", to "this lovely creature is my doctor as her absence was my disease". Prettily said, sir.
Oh, and Pamela thinks "books polish a mind", so she'd no doubt like to stay here (as would I)!
(The paintings are by Joseph Highmore).
There's an amusing bit in Mary Brunton's novel Discipline - the heroine is swept away in a carriage a la Pamela; instead of being taken off to the master's house, she instead simply gets out.
Posted by: Simon T | 28 July 2008 at 08:07 PM
Sounds like a book I'd love to escape into.
Posted by: Fiberjoy | 29 July 2008 at 03:31 PM
Gosh, I read this a long, long time ago in a summer class in college.
Posted by: Nan | 08 August 2008 at 02:35 AM