SAMUEL RICHARDSON

ASKS HIS CORRESPONDENT, [MOST LIKELY HIS WIFE ELIZABETH] TO SEND OCTAVO COPIES OF HIS CLASSIC PAMELA TO HIM

RICHARDSON, SAMUEL.  (1689-1761).  English novelist; author of Pamela; or Virtue Rewarded (1740).  Exceedingly scarce Partial Autograph Letter Signed, “S. Richardson”.  One page, oblong octavo.  No place, no date.  Very fine condition.  To an unknown correspondent.  Richardson writes:

“My best respects to our worthy friends.  Send me word how they both do.  Charge Mr. M. not to be in haste to immerse himself in business, and to harden himself by airings of diversions and amusement, and his foundation for health will then probably be durable.  I hope they need not be told, that Putney or Richmond, or Twickenham, was never more theirs, than Parson’s Green is.  Blessing to all my girls, adieu my Belle!  Excuse this informal paper.  It is more than form when I tell you, how much I am yours.  S. Richardson.  [P.S.] Send the octavo Pamelas by bearer.”

 

Samuel Richardson was well-known for his epistolary style of writing.  In Pamela; or Virtue Rewarded (1740), he tells the story of a young servant-girl’s attempts at saving her honor from her lecherous master through a series of letters.  His other important works, including a sequel to Pamela, were also written in the same fashion.  Due to his unique writing form, Richardson was considered by many to be one of the founders of the English modern novel.

 

$3500.00