Inspirational Quotes by Samuel Richardson (English Novelist)

Samuel Richardson (1689–1761) was an English novelist and printer. His most famous work is his masterpiece Clarissa; at a daunting length of a million words, it’s a candidate for the longest English novel.

Born in Derbyshire, Richardson settled in London. He became renowned in mid-18th-century London as a leading master printer. His first novel Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded (1740–42) was published when he was 51. Written wholly in the form of a complex web of letters and journals, it popularized the epistolary novel. He experimented further with this genre in Clarissa (1747–48) and Sir Charles Grandison (1753–54.) They were immediate successes.

Richardson claimed Shakespearian tragedy as the model for Clarissa. In this monumental novel, the beautiful young heir Clarissa Harlowe is dangerously attracted by the wiles of the disreputable libertine Robert Lovelace. Threatened by an impending marriage arranged with the rich, elderly, and old suitor that her family has set up for her, Lovelace convinces Clarissa to run away with him, only to be tricked by him into virtual imprisonment in a brothel. Clarissa eventually escapes from him, returns to her family, and dies under the strain of her experiences. Lovelace’s atonement comes too late to save her.

Clarissa quickly became cult reading among the new class of English readers. Richardson’s use of the epistolary form to supply the reader a privileged peek into the psychology of the protagonists was crucial to the development of his novels. Philosophers like Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Montesquieu took up this style, using it to communicate their thoughts on moral issues and the social context with psychological intensity.

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