Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Samuel Richardson
-
Standard Name: Richardson, Samuel
SR
's three epistolary novels, published between 1740 and 1753, exerted an influence on women's writing which was probably stronger than that of any other novelist, male or female, of the century. He also facilitated women's literary careers in his capacity as member of the publishing trade, and published a letter-writing manual and a advice-book for printers' apprentices.
To all eyes she lived as Munby's servant; she often still slept in the basement kitchen. In the evenings, however, she played the role of a lady wife, sitting with Munby in the parlour, conversing...
Cultural formation
Ann Hatton
This turbulent, restless and divided family was also unusual in being of mixed religion. Ann's mother was a Protestant
and her father a Catholic
. They followed the same system proposed for a mixed marriage...
Dedications
Frances Sheridan
This novel was complete in itself; the sequel was not thought of till later. FS
dedicated it to Samuel Richardson
, who had been a strong supporter and who was to die only four months...
Dedications
Elizabeth Cooper
EC
called this book the first publick Tryal of my Muse.
Cooper, Elizabeth. The Rival Widows. T. Woodward, 1735.
She must have been well educated. She has a good grasp of history and politics, and of canonical English fiction from Richardson
to her own most respected immediate female predecessors. She took a wry interest...
Education
Elizabeth Pipe Wolferstan
EPW
says nothing specific about her intellectual development, except that Richardson
's Sir Charles Grandison had formed her mind and heart. Her education was clearly a good one that included much reading.
Education
Catherine Carswell
In her unfinished autobiography, CC
remembers that while she grew up there were no novels in the house except Sir Walter Scott
's, and a small, fat, small-printed volume, bound in ornamental red and black...
Education
Marjorie Bowen
To educate herself further, she read widely, setting herself literary exercises, writing verse imitating or dramatising Chaucer
, Spenser
, and Browning
. However, she writes that at that time, I had read no really...
Education
Mary Cowden Clarke
MCC
later remembered her responsibility, when very young, of escorting her two next younger brothers to their school.
Clarke, Mary Cowden. My Long Life. Dodd, Mead, 1896.
10
Unlike them, she began her education at home. She writes fondly about the rich array of...
Education
Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck
In the house of an aunt she was surprised to find novels (particularly those of Richardson
) a topic of conversation,
Schimmelpenninck, Mary Anne. Life of Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck. Editor Hankin, Christiana C., Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, and Roberts, 1858.
1: 118
and that (in her own judgement) Fielding
and Smollett
, and various...
Family and Intimate relationships
Stéphanie-Félicité de Genlis
SFG
had two daughters or adopted daughters, Pamela
(named after Richardson
's fictional heroine) and Hermine. Pamela later married an Irish patriot, becoming Lady Edward Fitzgerald
. The question of her parentage, and indeed her...
Family and Intimate relationships
Elizabeth Graeme Ferguson
Her mother, born Ann Diggs, was stepdaughter of the first colonial governor of Pennsylvania. Ann died in 1765, and like Elizabeth Singer Rowe
(and Richardson
's Clarissa) she left posthumous letters for delivery after her death.
Garraty, John A., and Mark C. Carnes, editors. American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 1999.
Blain, Virginia, Patricia Clements, and Isobel Grundy, editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford, 1990.
Family and Intimate relationships
Elizabeth Gilding
Like her, he was a contributor to magazines: a juvenile work by him appeared in the Lady's Magazine in 1775, and he later contributed to the European and other magazines under the name of Fidelio...
Friends, Associates
Mary Collyer
MC
knew Elizabeth Carter
slightly before her marriage, and was a friend of Samuel Richardson
. Carter wrote of her to Elizabeth Montagu
and as an author she also met other Bluestockings, becoming particularly...
Friends, Associates
Anna Letitia Barbauld
A week later, calling her an amiable lady, he claimed (falsely) that she saw Richardson
as the equal of Shakespeare
. In January 1812 he shocked Henry Crabb Robinson
(who thought this behaviour personally...
Timeline
1714
Following the death of Mary Kettilby
, her executrix published her A Collection of Above Three Hundred Receipts in Cookery, Physick and Surgery; for the use of all good wives, tender mothers, and careful nurses.
19 June 1725
Dorothy Stanley
, née Milborne, published by subscription Sir Philip Sidney
's Arcadia Moderniz'd, in four books (coinciding with the thirteenth edition of the original romance).
English Short Title Catalogue. http://estc.bl.uk/, http://estc.bl.uk/.
November 1739
Sir Roger L'Estrange
's prose translation of Aesop
's Fables (formerly treated in snappy couplets by Aphra Behn
) was printed—by Samuel Richardson
.
4 April 1741
Henry Fielding
, publishing as Conny Keyber, led the rush of response to Richardson
's Pamela with a burlesque entitled Shamela.
Samuel Richardson
read the alternative ending to his novelClarissa that Lady Echlin
(sister of Lady Bradshaigh
) had been spurred to write by her revulsion at Clarissa's rape and unmerited death.
12 May 1759
Edward Young
published Conjectures on Original Composition. In a letter to the author of Sir Charles Grandison; a second volume followed the next month.
1767
At auctions of copyright, Richardson
's Clarissa was valued at £600, but Addison
and Steele
's Spectator at £1,300, Shakespeare
at £1,800, and Pope
at £4,400.
1771
In a year when Sir Joshua Reynolds
painted, as Girl Reading, his niece Theophila Palmer
perusing Richardson
's Clarissa, five novels by women advertised their Clarissa kinship.
1774
The British Novelist: Or, Virtue and Vice in Miniature was published in twelve volumes of abridged texts by Sarah
and Henry Fielding
, Richardson
, Smollett
, and Lennox
.
1780
James Harrison
(hitherto chiefly known as a music publisher) began to issue the handsomely-produced Novelists' Magazine, a weekly serial reprinting of canonical novels.
August-21 December 1791
In Paris the Salon of 1791, the first non-monarchical display of art to a new public, featured a large increase in works by women.
By 22 July 1797
William Beckford
published a second and more marked burlesque attack on women's writing: Azemia: A Descriptive and Sentimental Novel. Interspersed with Pieces of Poetry.
August 1813
The Critical Review published its first welcome to Eaton Stannard Barrett
's famous parody of sentimental novels, The Heroine, or Adventures of the Fair Romance Reader.
1990
Robin Holloway
's operaClarissa (composed in 1976 from Samuel Richardson
's novel of the same title, published in 1747-8) had its premiere.
Texts
Harris, Jocelyn, and Samuel Richardson. “Chronology”. Sir Charles Grandison, The World’s Classics, Oxford University Press, 1986, p. xliii - xlv.
Richardson, Samuel. Clarissa. S. Richardson, 1748.
Richardson, Samuel. Correspondence with Lady Bradshaigh and Lady Echlin. Editor Sabor, Peter, Cambridge University Press, 2016.
Richardson, Samuel. “Introduction”. Selected Letters of Samuel Richardson, edited by John Carroll, Clarendon, 1964, pp. 3-35.
Richardson, Samuel. “Introduction”. Correspondence with Aaron Hill and the Hill Family, edited by Christine Gerrard, Cambridge University Press, 2013, p. i - xlix.
Richardson, Samuel. “Notes”. Clarissa, edited by Angus Ross, Penguin, 1985, pp. 1513-26.
Richardson, Samuel. Pamela. C. Rivington and J. Osborn, 1740.
