Pamela
Samuel Richardson · 1689–1761 · England
Why it matters
A servant girl's letters resist her master's advances until virtue is, famously, rewarded with marriage. Often mocked for its moralizing, it nonetheless invented the sustained epistolary novel and made private correspondence a form for showing a mind at work.
At a glance
epistolaryromance
Difficulty 4/10slow pace500 pagesSimple letter-form prose, though its moralizing repetition can wear thin.
Deep dive
A servant girl fends off her employer's escalating advances in real time, and the letters she writes while doing it are the whole invention.
Where to go next
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Voltaire · 1759CandideLvl 3Fast paced
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe · 1774The Sorrows of Young WertherLvl 3Medium pace