Cοurse paper Theme: Henry Fielding parodies on Samuel Richardson's novels

CHAPTER 2.
THE LIFE AND WELL-KNOWN WORKS OF SAMUEL RICHARDSON
II.1. The famous works of Samuel Richardson
As it was outlined above, closer to the middle of the 18th century a new literary fashion appeared. It was sentimentalism. The first representative of the sentimental school in the English literature was once Samuel Richardson (1689-1761), the son of a joiner, who got here to London and was once apprenticed as a printer. He remained a printer at some point of his lifestyles and accompanied the path of the virtuous and successful apprentice, even to marrying his master’s daughter. He used to be requested to prepare and a collection of model letters for these who may want to not write for themselves. Richardson informed maidservants how to negotiate a notion of marriage, apprentices how to apply for situations, and even his sons how to plead their father’s forgiveness. This humble undertaking taught Richardson that he had at his fingers’ ends the artwork of expressing himself in letters, and in the years that accompanied he published three lengthy works, on which his recognition rests; “Pamela; or, Virtue Reward-ed” (1740), “Clarissa; or, the History of a Young Lady” (1748) and “The History of Sir Charles Grandison” (1754), in which the inner world of the persona is shown. In them Richardson glorifies middle-class virtues
as antagonistic to the immorality of the aristocracy. He makes his readers sympathize with his heroes. In each instance, the central story is a simple one. Pamela used to be a virtuous servant, who resisted the attempts at seduction of the son of her late mistress, and, as a result, gained from him a inspiration of marriage, which she gleefully accepted. Clarissa was virtuous however a lady. TormentedREFERENCES1200n of her family, who advised on her a detestable suitor, she fled from domestic to the safety of the attractive Mr. Lovelace, who, as soon as he had her in his power, declared his interest in a manner which even his virtuous upbringing ought to not mistake. Nor was once he content material with declarations. For when these failed, he pressured himself upon her, and as oblique end result of is actions, she died. Sir Charles Grandison was once a model gentleman, who rescued one lady, and used to be betrothed to another, a situation which he managed with top notch delicacy, to the obvious pleasure of all parties. Richardson used to be the first novelist of the duration to make so unique a learn about of feelings and states of mind. His epistolary novels “Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded “ and “Clarissa; or, the History of a Young Lady” had a lasting and deep influence upon the history of European literature. These novels had been very a great deal admired in the 18th and 19th centuries. These works are too lengthy to be much read today, but their have an impact on has been enormous. Richardson’s books brought various important, and in some ways new, elements to the novel. Each of his novels has a unified plot rather than disconnected episodes. The works established the theme of courtship leading to marriage as a basic plot of the novel.All three novels by Samuel Richardson are written in the form of letters. The main direction of his novels was a detailed description of real people in common situations of domestic life. Particularly, Richardson’s novels treat woman’s concern for security, marriage, and a social role. The novelty of form, by which he revealed his narrative through letters, came by accident, but, though never self-conscious in his art, he must have realized that this was his ideal method. For his strength lay in the knowledge of the human heart, in the delineation of the shades of sentiment, as they shift and change, and the cross-purposes which trouble the mind moved by emotion. Influenced via the French creator Rousseau the sentimentalists concept that civilization was harmful to humanity. They believed that man must stay shut to nature and be free from the corrupting have an effect on of city life. For example, in Oliver Goldsmith’s novel “The Vicar of Wakefield” (1766) and Laurence Sterne’s (1713 - 1768) “Sentimental Journey” and in some other novels of the time, the corruption of city life is contrasted to the completely happy patriarchal life in the country. Oliver Goldsmith was also a poet. Most of his poems are committed to the village life. (e.g. “The Deserted Village”). Samuel Johnson stated of him in an epitaph, he attempted each type of literature and every kind he tried he adorned. His dramas and his novel have already been recorded, and his hack-work history is great left without record. His essays, however, showed his individuality, and in “The Citizen of the World” (1762) he feedback on lifestyles through the imaginary letters of a Chinese visitor. The other sentimentalist poets of the 18th century were: James Thomson (1700 1748), who was too diffuse to be a brilliant artist.His poem “The Seasons” (1726) is like a schoolboy’s essay padded into the requisite size. Yet for over a century he was once one of the most widely-read poets in England. His sympathy with regular life, and for poverty, mixed with his generous sentiment made him appropriate to many who may want to no longer tolerate the difficult brilliance of A. Pope. Also his cure of nature was once original, even if ponderous, and it was a theme growing in popularity; Thomas Gray (1716 -1771), the author of the “Elegy”. He was once among the most realized men in Europe in his day, but his poems are a thin sheaf, a few odes and the “Elegy”. He brought into his poems new interests, but with the whole of the classical and medieval world inside his hold close it is sad that some despair or inertia held him from composition.