Publisher Description

'Pamela under the Notion of being a Virtuous Modest Girl will be introduced into all Familes,and when she gets there, what Scenes does she represent? Why a fine young Gentleman endeavouring to debauch a beautiful young Girl of Sixteen.' (Pamela Censured, 1741) One of the most spectacular successes of the burgeoning literary marketplace of eighteeent-century London, Pamela also marked a defining moment in the emergence of the modern novel. In the words of one contemporary, it divided the world 'into two different Parties, Pamelists and Antipamelists', even eclipsing the sensational factional politics of the day. Preached up for its morality, and denounced as pornography in disguise, it vividly describes a young servant's long resistance to the attempts of her predatory master to seduce her. Written in the voice of its low-born heroine, but by a printer who fifteen years earlier had narrowly escaped imprisonment for the seditious output of his press, Pamela is not only a work of pioneering psychological complexity, but also a compelling and provocative study of power and its abuse. Based on the original text of 1740, from which Richardson later retreated in a series of defensive revisions, this edition makes available the version of Pamela that aroused such widespread controversy on its first appearance. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Richardson's novels reveal the conflict of human passion in all its aspects - love, lust, and suffering. This conflict is considered and critically analysed in fourteen essays, all originally published in Eighteenth-Century Fiction.

This volume documents the literary controversy and debate over Samuel Richardson's novel, "Pamela", published in 1741. It brings together and reprints key sources within the debate, including artists such as Francis Hayman, Hubert Gravelot, Joseph Highmore and Philip Mercer.

The English Novel in History 1700-1780 provides students with specific contexts for the early novel in response to a new understanding of eigtheenth-century Britain. It traces the social and moral representations of the period in extended readings of the major novelists, as well as evaluatiing the importance of lesser known ones. John Richetti traces the shifting subject matter of the novel, discussing: * scandalous and amatory fictions * criminal narratives of the early part of the century * the more disciplined, realistic, and didactic strain that appears in the 1740's and 1750's * novels promoting new ideas about the nature of domestic life * novels by women and how they relate to the shift of subject matter This original and useful book revises traditional literary history by considering novels from those years in the context of the transformation of Britain in the eighteenth century.

The fifteen essays in this volume, written by friends, colleagues, and former students, attempt both to acknowledge and to honor Martin C. Battestin's many contributions to our understanding of the literature and art of the so-called Augustan period.

Kate Loveman explores the ways in which seventeenth- and eighteenth-century reading habits were applied to and shaped genres. Examining works by authors such as Defoe, Swift, Richardson and Fielding, she recovers a lost critical discourse through which authors and readers interrogated, mocked, and elaborated fictions. Her lively book offers a striking new approach to Restoration and eighteenth-century literature and politics, in particular to understanding the development of the novel.

This lively and accessible textbook, written by an expert in film studies, provides a fascinating introduction to the process and art of literature-to-film adaptations. Provides a lively, rigorous, and clearly written account of key moments in the history of the novel from Don Quixote and Robinson Crusoe up to Lolita and One Hundred Years of Solitude Includes diversity of topics and titles, such as Fielding, Nabokov, and Cervantes in adaptations by Welles, Kubrick, and the French New Wave Emphasizes both the literary texts themselves and their varied transtextual film adaptations Examines numerous literary trends – from the self-conscious novel to magic realism – before exploring the cinematic impact of the movement Reinvigorates the field of adaptation studies by examining it through the grid of contemporary theory Brings novels and film adaptations into the age of multiculturalism, postcoloniality, and the Internet by reflecting on their contemporary relevance.

Eighteenth-Century Characters offers a concise introduction to the eighteenth century, using characters as its starting point. Elaine M. McGirr presents contextualized readings of stock characters from canonical and popular literature, such as: - The rake and the fop - The country gentleman - The good woman - The coquette and the prude - The country maid and the town lady - The Catholic, the Protestant and the British Other. Each chapter explores how a character's significance and role changes over the century, illustrating and explaining radical shifts in taste, ideology and style. Also featuring illustrations, a Chronology and a helpful Bibliography and Further Reading section, this essential guide will provide students with the necessary background to understand the period's literature and to embark on further study.

In Infamous Commerce, Laura J. Rosenthal uses literature to explore the meaning of prostitution from the Restoration through the eighteenth century, showing how both reformers and libertines constructed the modern meaning of sex work during this period. From Grub Street's lurid "whore biographies" to the period's most acclaimed novels, the prostitute was depicted as facing a choice between abject poverty and some form of sex work. Prostitution, in Rosenthal's view, confronted the core controversies of eighteenth-century capitalism: luxury, desire, global trade, commodification, social mobility, gender identity, imperialism, self-ownership, alienation, and even the nature of work itself. In the context of extensive research into printed accounts of both male and female prostitution—among them sermons, popular prostitute biographies, satire, pornography, brothel guides, reformist writing, and travel narratives—Rosenthal offers in-depth readings of Samuel Richardson's Clarissa and Pamela and the responses to the latter novel (including Eliza Haywood's Anti-Pamela), Bernard Mandeville's defenses of prostitution, Daniel Defoe's Roxana, Henry Fielding's Tom Jones, and travel journals about the voyages of Captain Cook to the South Seas. Throughout, Rosenthal considers representations of the prostitute's own sexuality (desire, revulsion, etc.) to be key parts of the changing meaning of "the oldest profession."