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.
Wedlock, now well-known, is a poem of vituperative denunciation. Another of her poems describes and praises a woman based on Richardson
's Clarissa.
Knights, Elspeth. “’Daring to Touch the Hem of her Garment’: Women Reading <span data-tei-ns-tag="tei_title" data-tei-title-lvl=‘m’>Clarissa</span>”;. Women’s Writing, Vol.
7
, No. 2, pp. 221-45.
222-3
Friends, Associates
Mehetabel Wright
Either now or later she met the writer John Duncombe
and painter Joseph Highmore
, as well as the novelist Samuel Richardson
.
Many of her poems, sent to relations, seem to have been lost in transit. Only a handful have been identified, though there may be more to come. Some which do survive are to be found...
Textual Production
Mary Wollstonecraft
During the same year, 1790, Johnson
published Young Grandison. A Series of Letters from Young Persons to Their Friends, MW
's free rendering of a Richardson
-inspired juvenile conduct book by the Dutchwoman Maria Geertruida van de Werken de Cambon
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.
Textual Features
Harriette Wilson
Much in this revised and expanded edition is merely scrappy (and some is written by Stockdale), with nuggets strung together by such giveaway phrases as By the bye and To change the subject.
Wilson, Frances. The Courtesan’s Revenge. Faber.
249
But...
Textual Production
Anna Williams
Johnson
wrote to Samuel Richardson
to enlist his support for AW
in her plan to compile a dictionary of philosophical, that is scientific, terms.
Johnson, Samuel. The Letters of Samuel Johnson. Editor Redford, Bruce, Princeton University Press.
1: 79-80
Publishing
Anna Williams
AW
's Verses to Mr. Richardson
, on his Publication of Sir Charles Grandison appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine.
Larsen, Lyle. Dr. Johnson’s Household. Archon Books.
28-9
Publishing
Anna Williams
She wanted to have Richardson
's opinion, as a leading London printer, as to whether a scientific dictionary might be profitable in this age of dictionaries. She had been meditat[ing] her scheme for a long...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text
Anna Williams
Williams voices admiration for each of Richardson
's three novels, and ingeniously defends him against a recurrent criticism: Proceed to teach, thy labours ne'er can tire, / Thou still must write, and we must still...
Literary responses
Jane West
When the fourth volume appeared in 1789, the Critical found it heavy, languid and uninteresting, and judged the serial publication to have been a mistake.
She published this with Longman
, signing her preface Helena Wells Whitford, though the title-page says only by the Author of the Step-Mother. Subscribers included Joanna Baillie
and Anne Hunter
. The title-page...
Intertextuality and Influence
Eglinton Wallace
Hers is, however, a conservative approach to improving the status of women. She sees female chastity as central not only to women's well-being but also to society, for reasons of property and inheritance and to...
Textual Features
Lady Mary Walker
The title character, Eliza de Crui, sets the tone for discussion by writing from Brussels to Mrs Pierpont at Liège with the remark that, since it is so hard to say anything new, she will...
Textual Production
Catharine Trotter
Critic Robert Adams Day
ably summarised the virtues of this tale in 1969, well ahead of the explosion of interest in early women's writing. He pointed out the novelty of the middle-class heroine, chaste but...
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.
