Death
In his final years, Richardson received visits from Archbishop Secker ,other important political figures, and many London writers.[69] By that time, he enjoyed a high social position and was Master of the Stationers' Company.[69] In early November 1754, Richardson and his family moved from the Grange to a home at Parson's Green.[69] It was during this time that Richardson received a letter from Samuel Johnson asking for money to pay for a debt that Johnson was unable to afford.[70] On 16 March 1756, Richardson responded with more than enough money, and their friendship was certain by this time.[70]
Besides associating with important figures of the day, Richardson's career began to conclude.[71] Grandison was his final novel, and he stopped writing fiction afterwards.[71] However, he was continually prompted by various friends and admirers to continue to write along with suggested topics.[71] Richardson did not like any of the topics, and chose to spend all of his time composing letters to his friends and associates.[71] The only major work that Richardson would write would be A Collection of the Moral and Instruction Sentiments, Maxims, Cautions, and Reflexions, contained in the Histories of Pamela, Clarissa, and Sir Charles Grandison.[72] Although it is possible that this work was inspired by Johnson asking for an "index rerum" for Richardson's novels, the Collection contains more of a focus on "moral and instructive" lessons than the index that Johnson was seeking.[72]
After June 1758, Richardson began to suffer from insomnia, and in June 1761, he was afflicted with apoplexy .[73] This moment was described by his friend, Miss Talbot, on 2 July 1761:
"Poor Mr. Richardson was seized on Sunday evening with a most severe paralytic stroke.... It sits pleasantly upon my mind, that the last morning we spent together was particularly friendly, and quiet, and comfortable. It was the 28th of May - he looked then so well! One has long apprehended some stroke of this kind; the disease made its gradual approaches by that heaviness which clouded the cheerfulness of his conversation, that used to be so lively and so instructive; by the encreased tremblings which unfitted that hand so peculiarly formed to guide the pen; and by, perhaps, the querulousness of temper, most certainly not natural to so sweet and so enlarged a mind, which you and I have lately lamented, as making his family at times not so comfortable as his principles, his study, and his delight to diffuse happiness, whereever he could, would otherwise have done"[74]
Two days later, 4 July 1761, Richardson died at Parson's Green and was buried at St. Bride's church near his first wife Martha.[75]
During Richardson's life, his printing press produced nearly five hundred different books.[76] He wanted to keep the press in his family, but after the death of his four sons and a nephew, his printing press would be left in his will to his only surviving male heir, a second nephew.[77] This happened to be a nephew that Richardson did not trust and Richardson doubted his nephew's abilities as a printer.[77] Richardson's fears proved to be warranted for after his death, the press stopped producing quality works and eventually stopped printing all together.[77] Richardson owned copyrights to most of his works, and these were sold after his death.[78] They were sold in twenty-fourth shares, with Clarissa bringing in 25 pounds each, Grandison bringing in 20 pounds each, and Pamela, which only had sixteenth shares sold, received 18 pounds each.[78]
[edit ] Epistolary novel
Richardson was a skilled letter writer and his talent traces back to his childhood.[7] Throughout his whole life, he would constantly write to his various associates.[71] Richardson had a "faith" in the act of letter writing, and believed that letters could be used to accurately portray character traits.[79] He quickly adopted the epistolary novel form, which granted him "the tools, the space, and the freedom to develop distinctly difference characters speaking directly to the reader".[79] The characters of Pamela, Clarissa, and Grandison are revealed in a personal way, with the first two using the epistolary form for "dramatic" purposes, and the last for "celebratory" purposes.[80]
In his first novel, Pamela, he explored the various complexities of the title character's life, and the letters allow the reader to witness her develop and progress over time.[81] The novel was an experiment, but it allowed Richardson to create a complex heroine through a series of her letters.[82] When Richardson wrote Clarissa, he had more experience in the form and expanded the letter writing to four different correspondents, which created a complex system of characters encouraging each other to grow and develop over time.[83] However, the villain of the story, Lovelace, is also involved in the letter writing, and this leads to tragedy.[84] Leo Braudy described the benefits epistolary form of Clarissa as, "Language can work: letters can be ways to communicate and justify".[85] By the time Richardson writes Grandison, he transforms the letter writing from telling of personal insights and explaining feelings into a means for people to communicate their thoughts on the actions of others and for the public to celebrate virtue.[86] The letters are no longer written for a few people, but are passed along in order for all to see.[87]
[edit ] References
[edit ] Notes
- ^ a b c d Dobson p. 1
- ^ Dobson p. 1-2
- ^ a b c Dobson p. 2
- ^ Dobson p. 3
- ^ Hunt, Leigh. London Journal Supplement No 2, 1834
- ^ a b c Dobson p. 4
- ^ a b c d e Dobson p. 5
- ^ a b c Dobson p. 6
- ^ a b c d Dobson p. 7
- ^ a b c Sale p. 7
- ^ Dobson p. 8-9
- ^ Dobson p. 9
- ^ a b c Sale p. 8
- ^ Dobson p. 10
- ^ Sale p. 9
- ^ Sale p. 15
- ^ a b c Sale p. 351
- ^ Dobson p. 12
- ^ Dobson p. 13
- ^ a b Dobson p. 14
- ^ a b c Sale p. 11
- ^ a b c d Dobson p. 15
- ^ a b Flynn p. 6
- ^ Flynn p. 7
- ^ Flynn p. 8
- ^ Sale p. 18
- ^ Dobson p. 17
- ^ Dobson p. 18
- ^ a b Dobson p. 19
- ^ a b Sale p. 1
- ^ Dobson p. 26
- ^ Dobson p. 27
- ^ Flynn p. 56
- ^ Flynn p. 67
- ^ Flynn p. 136
- ^ a b Dobson p. 25
- ^ Dobson p. 38
- ^ a b Dobson p. 39
- ^ a b c Dobson p. 73
- ^ Dobson p. 73-74
- ^ a b c Dobson p. 74
- ^ Dobson p. 75
- ^ a b Dobson p. 77
- ^ Letter from Collier to Richardson 4 October 1748
- ^ Sabor p. 150
- ^ Rizzo p. 45
- ^ Rizzo p. 46
- ^ Sabor p. 151
- ^ a b c d Dobson p. 83
- ^ a b Dobson p. 82
- ^ a b Dobson p. 81
- ^ Flynn p. 287
- ^ Dobson p. 86
- ^ Dobson p. 94
- ^ Flynn p. 286
- ^ Dobson p. 95-96
- ^ a b Dobson p. 96
- ^ Dobson p. 97
- ^ a b Dobson p. 99
- ^ a b c Dobson p. 101
- ^ Flynn p. 230
- ^ Dobson p. 141-142
- ^ Dobson p. 142
- ^ Dobson p. 144
- ^ a b Sale p. 26
- ^ Dobson p. 145
- ^ Dobson p. 146
- ^ Flynn p. 231
- ^ a b c Dobson p. 170
- ^ a b Dobson p. 177
- ^ a b c d e Dobson p. 178
- ^ a b Dobson p. 183
- ^ Dobson p. 186
- ^ Dobson p. 186-187
- ^ Dobson p. 187
- ^ Sale p. 3
- ^ a b c Sale p. 2
- ^ a b Sale p. 90
- ^ a b Flynn p. 235
- ^ Flynn p. 236
- ^ Flynn p. 237
- ^ Flynn p. 239
- ^ Flynn p. 243
- ^ Flynn p. 245
- ^ Braudy p. 203
- ^ Flynn p. 258
- ^ Flynn p. 259
[edit ] Bibliography
- Braudy, Leo. "Penetration and Impenetrability in Clarissa," New Approaches to Eighteenth-Century Literature: Selected Papers from the English Institute edited by Philip Harth. New York: Columbia University Press, 1974.
- Dobson, Austin. Samuel Richardson. Honolulu: University Press of the Pacific, 2003.
- Flynn, Carol. Samuel Richardson: A Man of Letters. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982.
- Rizzo, Betty. Companions Without Vows: Relationships Among Eighteenth-Century British Women. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1994. 439 pp.
- Sale, William M. Samuel Richardson: Master Printer. Ithica, N. Y.:Cornell University Press, 1950.
- Sabor, Peter. "Richardson, Henry Fielding, and Sarah Fielding", in The Cambridge companion to English literature from 1740 to 1830 edited by Thomas Keymer and Jon Mee, 139–156. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
[edit ] External links
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