I was doing some research into the history of letter writing, and I came across information about Samuel Richardson's novel "Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded," published in 1740.
Richardson wrote the novel as a series of letters from Pamela to her parents. According to Wikipedia, the novel was originally mocked, parodied and lambasted for its perceived lewdness. In the story, Pamela is a maid whose boss makes unwanted advances toward her. She is writing to her parents for help and advice. As you can imagine, by today's standards, the story is quite tame. In fact, Pamela stands her ground and gets a proper courtship and marriage from him.
The entire story in modern English is available online at Project Gutenberg.
It's not that easy to read, having been written almost 300 years ago, but it is interesting that it apparently made this form of novel writing, known as the epistolary novel, popular.
3 comments:
Thank your for this piece of letter writing history, which I'd probably never have learned, on my own.
Everything about letter writing, is a joy to learn, isn't it?
Aunt Amelia
I remember reading about this, and i love your format of your blog. Writing letters is such a lost art.
Just wanted to let you know that this book is currently being recorded at Librivox.orgYou can sign up to be notified when it is completed.
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