f the English novel. This book is prolix and languid in form,
and undoubtedly bears a curious resemblance to Richardson's novel. The
English printer, however, could not read French,[29] and there is
sufficient evidence to show that he was independent of any influences
save those which he took from real life. None the less, of course,
Marivaux, who has a name for affectation which his writings scarcely
deserve, has an interest for us as a harbinger of the modern novel.
_Pamela_ was published in two volumes in 1740. The author was
sufficiently ill-advised to add two more in 1741. In this latter
instalment Mrs. B. was represented as a dignified matron, stately and
sweet under a burden of marital infidelity. But this continuation is
hardly worthy to be counted among the works of Richardson.

The novelist showed great wisdom in not attempting to repeat too quickly
the success of his first work. He allowed the romances of Henry and
Sarah Fielding, the latter as grateful to him as the former were
repugnant, to produce their effect upon the public, and it was to an
audience more able to criticise fiction that Richardson addressed his
next budget from the mail-bag. _Clarissa; or, The History of a Young
Lady_, appeared, in instalments, but in seven volumes in all, in 1748,
with critical prefaces prefixed to the first and fourth volumes. In this
book the novelist put his original crude essay completely into the
shade, and added one to the masterpieces of the world. Released from the
accident which induced him in the pages of _Pamela_ to make his heroine
a servant-girl, in _Clarissa_, Richardson depicted a lady, yet not of so
lofty a rank as to be beyond the range of his own observation. The story
is again told entirely in letters; it is the history of the abduction
and violation of a young lady by a finished scoundrel, and ends in the
death of both characters. To enable the novelist to proceed, each
personage has a confidant. The beautiful and unhappy Clarissa Harlowe
corresponds with the vivacious Miss Howe; Robert Lovelace addresses his
friend and quondam fellow-reveller, John Belford. The character of
Clarissa is summed up in these terms by her creator: "A young Lady of
great Delicacy, Mistress of all the Accomplishments, natural and
acquired, that adorn the Sex, having the strictest Notions of filial
Duty." Her piety and purity, in fact, are the two loadstars of her moral
nature, and the pursuit of each leads her life to shipwr