Samuel Richardson

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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.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Literary responses May Laffan
Overlooking the weak management of the plot because the main aim of the author is a social picture, the Athenæum called Christy Carew a truthful account of Dublin society told in such a way that...
Literary responses Sarah Chapone
SC 's friend and printer Richardson saw her project in a different and far more simple light than she did: as the administering by a good woman of an antidote to the Poison shed by...
Literary responses Mary Lamb
In reading The Father's Wedding-day, Walter Savage Landor said he pressed my temples with both hands, and tears ran down to my elbows.. He read this story over and over again,
Burton, Sarah. A Double Life: A Biography of Charles and Mary Lamb. Viking.
244
and...
Literary responses Sarah Fielding
Samuel Richardson respected The Cry as a new Species of Writing, sent copies to two friends (Sophia Wescomb and Dorothy, Lady Bradshaigh ), and wanted it to go into a second edition—
Londry, Michael. “Our dear Miss Jenny Collier”. Times Literary Supplement, pp. 13-14.
13
Literary responses Marghanita Laski
The Times Literary Supplement called this novel a sad and cautionary idyll, and yet [a]ltogether a witty lark.
Charques, Richard Denis. “Mayfair Comedy”. Times Literary Supplement, No. 2235, p. 581.
581
Critic Phyllis Lassner compares ML 's Clarissa to Samuel Richardson 's, noting that both heroines are...
Literary responses Elizabeth Griffith
The original letters were immensely popular with readers (among others Sarah Harriet Burney was a devotee); their authors became famous under their pseudonyms. Not everyone agreed in admiring them, however. Lady Bradshaigh remarked to Samuel Richardson
Literary responses Clara Reeve
The Critical Review evaluated this novel respectfully, calling it pleasing and interesting, but John Noorthouck , writing in the Monthly, dismissed it impatiently as one of the regrettably numerous progeny of Samuel Richardson .
Garside, Peter et al., editors. The English Novel 1770-1829. Oxford University Press.
1: 544
Literary responses Mary Elizabeth Braddon
Henry James 's review in 1865 considered Braddon's success alongside that of Collins , pronouncing her the founder of the sensation novel (defined as devising domestic mysteries adapted to the wants of a sternly prosaic...
Literary responses Amelia Opie
The Critical Review, which had praised AO 's earlier work, thought this novel equally well done, and that the description of the heroine's death could stand comparison with those of Richardson 's Clarissa or...
Literary responses Mary Leapor
This volume attracted attention from Samuel Richardson , Christopher Smart , and the young William Cowper , as well as from its chief promoters, John Duncombe and Susanna Highmore .
Rizzo, Betty. “Molly Leapor: An Anxiety for Influence”. The Age of Johnson, edited by Paul J. Korshin, Vol.
4
, pp. 313-43.
327-8
Literary responses Susan Smythies
The Critical Review noted that SS was imitating Richardson in this novel (as she had imitated Fielding in her last). In The Brothers it found all the machinery of a modern novel, without the overall...
Literary Setting Emma Tennant
Her heroine, based on herself aged fifteen onwards, is a red-haired debutante from Scotland, progressing from a seedy finishing school to being launched on the London season, an environment full of seducers and conmen where...
Material Conditions of Writing Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
This venture was triggered by the appearance on the market of Austen 's juvenile play Sir Charles Grandison, itself an adaptation from the novel by Samuel Richardson . London Weekend Television acquired an option...
Author summary Susan Smythies
SS published three novels during the 1750s, which show her well versed both in the modern novel created by Henry Fielding and Richardson , and in an older tradition of satirical and didactic fiction relying...
Publishing Mary Chandler
Samuel Richardson , in London, did another anonymous printing of MC 's A Description of Bath.
Gentleman’s Magazine. Various publishers.
(September 1734): 51

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