Samuel Richardson is an 18th-century English writer and creator of "sensitive" literature. Richardson is recognized as the first novelist in England. In his works, the author uses the epistolary style, expounding the events in the form of personal, frank letters that the heroes of the novels wrote to each other. The writer penetrates the soul of the heroes, subtly conveying all the nuances of their feelings to the reader on the book pages. In addition to his writing career, Samuel worked in a print shop and publisher. He has published about 500 newspapers, magazines, and scientific papers.
Samuel Richardson gained world fame thanks to his epistolary novels:
- “Pamela, or Rewarded Virtue” (1740).
- “Clarissa, or the Story of a Young Lady” (1741).
- "The Story of Sir Charles Gradison" (1753).
Samuel Richardson Biography
The writer was born in early 1689 in the village of Macworth, Derbyshire. In addition to him, the family had eight more children. Samuel studied at a rural school. He spent his youth writing letters and entertaining friends. Already at the age of thirteen, he helped rural girls respond to letters from fans. In London, he studied skills at a printer, after which, having founded his own business, he created one of the largest printing houses in London.
Personal life
Richardson was twice married. Martha's first wife gave birth to 5 boys and one girl, three children were named after his father, but all of Richardson's sons died at an early age. The wife died six years later, shortly before the death of her fifth son.
After this, Samuel married a second time to a girl named Elizabeth, who also bore him six children. Of these, they were a boy, also Samuel, who died shortly after birth.
Creation
Despite the seemingly prominent writing inclinations, for the fifty-year-old Richardson, nothing foreshadowed his future as a great novelist of his time. He released his first novel "Pamela" in 1741. Despite the fact that Pamela became very popular and attracted the active support of other writers, Richardson himself did not consider it a worthy work of art.
Following the first novel, the second was released - "Clarissa, or the Story of a Young Lady", expressing important issues of personal life and reflecting the consequences of bad behavior of both parents and children in relation to the family. And then the novel “The Story of Sir Charles Gridison” followed. The writer's works are not eventful, the main thing in them is not the plot, but the analysis of the feelings and emotions of the heroes.
Richardson's work influenced writers such as Jane Austen, Rousseau, Henry Fielding and many others.