So, though I hoped not to succeed by her consent, I thought it not amiss to urge for it, for several reasons: among others, that I might account to her for my constant employment at my pen in order to take off her jealousy, that she was the subject of thy correspondence and mine: and that I might justify my secrecy and uncommunicativeness by her own. How happy should I think myself to be admitted into their correspondence? I would joyfully make an exchange of communications. I think, Miss Howe, I think, said I to myself, every now-and-then as we walked, that thy wicked devices are superceded.īut let me give thee a few particulars of our conversation in the circumrotation we took, while in the coach-She had received a letter from Miss Howe yesterday, I presumed? Then home early by Kentish-town.ĭelightfully easy she, and so respectful and obliging I, all the way, and as we walked out upon the heath, to view the variegated prospects which that agreeable elevation affords, that she promised to take now-and-then a little excursion with me. The coach carried us to Hampstead, to Highgate, to Muswell-hill back to Hampstead to the Upper-Flask: there, in compliment to the nymphs, my beloved consented to alight, and take a little repast.

O Jack! what devils are women, when all tests are got over, and we have completely ruined them!

They both topt their parts kept their eyes within bounds made moral reflections now-and- then. Just returned from an airing with my charmer, complied with after great importunity. He published and befriended many of the leading writers of his time, including Daniel Defoe, Sarah Fielding, and Samuel Johnson. Throughout the remainder of his career, he published two more epistolary novels-Clarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady (1748) and The History of Sir Charles Grandison (1753)-while continuing his work as a prominent and successful printer. During this time, Richardson turned to fiction, publishing his first novel, Pamela or, Virtue Rewarded in 1740, a work now considered the first modern novel.

Devastated, Richardson eventually remarried and focused on his career, earning a contract with the House of Commons in 1733 and hiring several apprentices to assist him at his shop. Having married in 1721, Richardson and his wife Martha Wilde suffered the loss of several sons before Martha succumbed to illness in 1732. He established his own shop in 1719 and received his first major contract in 1723, printing a bi-weekly Jacobite newspaper which was soon censored.

Born the son of a carpenter, Richardson received a limited education before becoming a printer’s apprentice. Samuel Richardson (1689-1761) was an English writer and printer.

The history of clarissa harlowe