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.
Astell alleges a specific provocation for it: she had just been reading the duchess's memoirs, a case-study of a bad marriage, in which both sides were to blame.
Perry, Ruth. The Celebrated Mary Astell: An Early English Feminist. University of Chicago Press.
PA
's latest novel, The Life of Charlotta Du Pont. An English Lady; Taken from her own Memoirs, was advertised with her name; it was dedicated to a Mrs Rowe.
The novel is available...
Textual Production
Penelope Aubin
PA
's A Collection of Entertaining Histories and Novels was posthumously published, with a preface which may be by Samuel Richardson
.
London Magazine. C. Ackers.
8: 416
Intertextuality and Influence
Penelope Aubin
PA
was an influence on the abbé Prévost
, as well as, arguably, on Richardson
. Nevertheless Prévost
attacked her in print in 1734.
Feminist Companion Archive.
Intertextuality and Influence
Penelope Aubin
Critics have debated how far the abbé Prevost
and Samuel Richardson
(in his first two novels) were influenced by The Illustrious French Lovers. Shelly Charles
accepts that PA
's heroine Angélique was a model...
Literary responses
Marie-Catherine d' Aulnoy
Bibliographer Melvin D. Palmer
assigns to these an important place in the history of French-English prose fiction in the formative years that saw the rise of the modern novel.
Palmer, Melvin D. “Madame d’Aulnoy in England”. Comparative Literature, Vol.
Baillie, Joanna. The Collected Letters of Joanna Baillie. Editor Slagle, Judith Bailey, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.
1: 511
Textual Production
Anna Letitia Barbauld
ALB
's edition of Samuel Richardson
's Correspondence appeared in six volumes; she abridged the letters she chose by an average of about 30% and changed at least one or two words in all of them.
McCarthy, William et al. “Introduction”. The Poems of Anna Letitia Barbauld, University of Georgia Press, p. xxi - xlvi.
xlv
McCarthy, William. “What Did Anna Barbauld Do to Richardson’s Correspondence? A Study of Her Editing”. Studies in Bibliography: Papers of the Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia, Vol.
54
, pp. 191-23.
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...
Textual Features
Anna Letitia Barbauld
The series has a general introduction, On the Origin and Progress of Novel-Writing, and a Preface, Biographical and Critical for each novelist, which in its echo of the full and original title of Johnson's...
Publishing
Mary Barber
This month Barber's teenage son Rupert was on duty all day to dispense copies to subscribers, at the painter's house in Covent Garden where he was a student or apprentice.
Stewart, Wendy. “The Poetical Trade of Favours: Swift, Mary Barber, and the Counterfeit Letters”. Lumen, Vol.
xviii
, pp. 155-74.
172n13
The true publication date...
Publishing
Anna Maria Bennett
AMB
advertised as published at Bath, with her name, her Agnes De-Courci, A Domestic Tale, an epistolary novel in the style of Richardson
.
Garside, Peter et al., editors. The English Novel 1770-1829. Oxford University Press.
1: 467
Intertextuality and Influence
Anna Maria Bennett
Sentiment, however, prevails. In further plot twists, it emerges that Agnes is after all legitimate, while Lady Mary's apparently privileged daughter is illegitimate (and her wealth is not hers after all), since James Neville had...
Textual Features
Elizabeth Bonhote
In the dedication EB
writes of her works as her children. Emelia Fitzroy (whose mother is dead and father in the army) stays in London with her friend Lavinia Seyton, and is subsequently forced to...
Timeline
1714: Following the death of Mary Kettilby, her...
Building item
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...
Women writers item
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/.
November 1739: Sir Roger L'Estrange's prose translation...
Writing climate item
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,...
Writing climate item
4 April 1741
Henry Fielding
, publishing as Conny Keyber, led the rush of response to Richardson
's Pamela with a burlesque entitled Shamela.
Probably 10 July 1748: Dorothea, Lady Bradshaigh, wrote her first...
February 1755: Samuel Richardson read the alternative ending...
Writing climate item
February 1755
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...
Writing climate item
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...
Writing climate item
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,...
Women writers item
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...
Writing climate item
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...
Writing climate item
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...
Building item
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...
Women writers item
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...
Writing climate item
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 opera Clarissa (composed...
Building item
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.
