SamuelRichardson英国文学小论文.doc

1、A Brief Analysis of Samuel RichardsonI. His Life and Literary AchievementSamuel Richardson(1659-1761), was well-behaved boy when young,his school nickname being “Seriousness and Gravity”. Alought his parents hoped he would be a priest, financial problems forced him to be an appentice to a printer an

2、d he did very well, then he married tmasters daughter, gradually rose to be one of the most prestigues printers in London. Unfortunately, ten years later,his wift dead following the death of five children.In1733, he remarried and had four surviving children. Richardson had received only a limited ed

3、ucation, but it was not blocked hid writing career. As a printer, Richardson published some political writing, such as the Tory periodial, The True Britain, the newspaper Daily Journal, and Daily Gazeleevc(1738), and six volumes of the Journal of the House of Commons. Therefore, he had early develop

4、ed a passion for letter writing. At age of 13, he used to be called on to write live letters for young women. This exprience gave him some insight into the secrets of the femalehood and considerable fluency in writing letters. By accident, he wrote his first novel in fifty ,invited by two booseller

5、to compile for them “a litte volume of letter, in a common style, on such subjects as might be use to those country readers who were unable to indite for themselves.” Some of these letters were for young girls in order to instruct them how to avoid the snares that might be laid against their virtue.

6、 As result, he wirte a long talePamela, or Virtue Rewarded which was a huge success. Consequently, he wrote Pamela II, which was not as warmly received as Part One by the reading public. After the failures of the Pamela sequels, Richardson began to compose a new novel. By 1747-8 his masterpiece Clar

7、issa was published in installment, and at that time he was in poor health. This novel was regarded as the first tragic novel in English literary history, and gave Richardson the position of the greatest epistolary novelist in the world. He died in 1761 in his early seventies, and was buried in St. B

8、rides Church, London near his first wife MarthaII. His WorksA. PamelaThe story is told in a series of letters from the heroine, Pamela Andrews, a young girl from poor family. However, she was treated well by her mistress, unfortunately the prelude of this story was the kind ladys death. The ladys so

9、n, Mr.B., taking a dishonourable advantage of her position, pursues her with obstinacy, but she indignantly refused him. When her parents knew their daughters dangerous situation, they urged her go home soon, finanlly those letters intercepted by Mr.B. Then Mr.B. resorted to all kinds of tricks to g

10、et what he wanted of the girl, including taking her off from his country house to his still more lonely estate. But in the end, Mr.B. was moved and educated by her letters, an admiration gradually deep-rooted in his heart. Finally B. is compelled to come to terms and proposed to Pamela. Then they ge

11、t married. Pamela became a “best-seller”of the day. It was a new thing in three ways: First, it discarded the “improbable and mavellous” accomplishments of the former heroic romances, and pictured the life and love of ordinary people. Secondly, its intention was to afford not merely entertainment bu

12、t also moral instruction. Thirdly, it described not only the sayings and doings of the character but also their secret thoughts and feelings. It was, in fact, the first English psycho-analytical novel. B. Clarissa, the History of a Young LadyThis novel contains altoghter more than 590 letters of two

13、 correspondencelines, one between Clarissa and her bosom friend Anne Howe, and the other between Lovelace and his rake friend Belford. It is a tragic story about a youngest daughter of a wealth family, struggle with her father ang brother to avoid marriage to the vilian Mr.Soames. Then she run away

14、from home under the help of her debauchery lover Lovelace. No sooner is she upon the road with him than he makes her suffer suffer every abuse in his power from which she is unable to free herself. She resists all his advances, though abandoned by her family and housed by Lovelace in a brothel. Desp

15、airing of winning her love, Lovelace drugs and rapes her. After that, she steadily refused the marriage he offers when Lovelace found his true heart to Clarissa. She wastes away until she dies when her family realised the misery they have caused ,but it was too late. Lovelace is killed in a duel by

16、her cousin. In art, the work developed a model in epistolary novels with complex psychological characters. It won an immediate popularity in Europe as well as in England. Samuel Johnson also speak highly of this novel, he said “If you were to read Richardson for the story, your impatience would be s

17、o much fretted that you would hang yourself. But you must read him for the sentiment, and consider the story as only giving occasion to the sentioment.” It is also the one of the longest novels in the English language.III. Some CommentsRichardsons novels were very popular in his time. His last novel

18、, The History of Sir Charles Grandison, appeared in 1753-4. His works, along with those of Defoe and Fielding, are widely considered to be the best works in English literature. Although he has been accused of being sentimental in novel wirting, his emphasis on detail, his psychological insights into

19、 women, and his dramatic technique have earned him a prominent place among English novelists. Richardson received great fame for his novel wirting and had many admirers and followers. Richarson fell out of favour of thr readers in 19th century and it was not untill mid-20th century when the psycholo

20、gical novel became fashionable that Richardson was re-evaluated and recognised as one of the two fountain heads of the modern English novel. He heralded the later psychological novelists such as Goerge Eliot, Herny James, Virginia Woolf and James Joyce.Works Cited:1. 刘炳善. A Short History of English

21、Literature(New Revised & Enlarged Edition) . Zhengzhou: The Peoples Press of Hunnan, 2006.2. 刘意青，刘炅. A Brief History of English Literature. Peking: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2008.3. 李正栓. A Course of British and American Literarure(British Literature). Peking: Science Press，2009.4. 李小鹿. 克拉丽莎的狂欢化特点研究. 北京大学出版社, 2007.5. 忽略此处:/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Richardson6. 忽略此处:/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarissa