Talk:Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded

Opening heading

Richardson did not invent the name "Pamela"; he took it from Philip Sidney's Old Arcadia. The novel Pamela led to the name's subsequent popularity.

Untitled

The above struck-thru contribution moved to Talk:Pamela (name), which is its direct concern.--Jerzy•t 05:47, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

Expansion

I've removed the following section headings from the article. They should not appear on the page until actually written about.

===The public and the private spheres===
===The middle class===
===Sensibility===

To this end, I also append the following notice. - dcljr (talk) 21:05, 22 May 2005 (UTC)

Badly needs expansion

I agree with the poster above. Since Wiki articles more often make mountains out of molehills, it is strange to see Pamela undervalued so. (Is Richardson nobody's favorite son, no city's local hero?) Pamela is usually celebrated as the great turning point which establishes the novel genre. Ian Watt, and so many others, have argued that its runaway success heralded the arrival of a new, literate middle class. It would be easy for someone who has a little more time than I do at semester's start, to quote Watt's concise, well-written section on its reception. A link to Rousseau's Julie would also show Richardson's influence on the century. Best, Profhum 17:56, 13 September 2007 (UTC)

This article also needs to be written better, or something. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Trackjunkie (talk • contribs) 01:01, 25 March 2008 (UTC)

meaning of names

Pamela was named after an italian actress —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.183.245.71 (talk) 02:53, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

De Sade connection?

Does this novel have any connection (thematically), to de Sade's Justine (Sade) or Juliette (novel)? If so, it might be worthwhile to mention alongside Fielding's Shamela. --Steerpike (talk) 13:36, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

Well, de Sade's work would be later, so I assume that any connection would only be one way. I cannot find anything from the Richardson people about de Sade. Ottava Rima (talk) 14:43, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

Improvements

If no one has a problem, I would like to add quite a bit of content and restructure some things. I wish to add in an analysis of how Pamela fits in as a novel, how it approaches morality, how it approaches psychology, and some of the other important critical aspects. I have about 20 sources to add, many from the authors already mentioned on the page. Ottava Rima (talk) 20:07, 7 November 2008 (UTC)

Primary usage of "Pamela"?

There might be a discussion at Talk:Pamela (disambiguation). PamD (talk) 20:20, 7 February 2009 (UTC)

There is a new discussion at Talk:Pamela_(disambiguation)#Requested move: at present the novel is treated as the primary usage of Pamela, which redirects here. There is a proposal that the dab page be moved to the title Pamela, ie to move to the situation where there is no primary usage of the word. PamD 08:08, 25 February 2012 (UTC)

Sequel

This article needs to have some mention of the sequel to Pamela. There doesn't seem to be a separate article for it, and it probably doesn't justify one. Still, it is a continuation of her story, with her trials of marriage, her views on child rearing, breastfeeding, etc. Girlwithgreeneyes (talk) 18:53, 9 May 2010 (UTC)

Forked tongue

We seem unable to make up our minds about the spelling of this work.

The article title is: Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded.

The lede calls it: Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded (comma after 'Pamela' instead of semi-colon; no comma after 'or')

The picture reveals it has yet a third name: Pamela: or, Virtue Rewarded (colon instead of semi-colon after 'Pamela'; comma after 'or' reinstated).

Can we at least not speak with three tongues about this? -- Jack of Oz ^[Talk] 21:54, 19 March 2013 (UTC)

Inaccurate Summary; Needs Rewrite or Extensive Revision

I am tagging the summary sections for cleanup as they need a complete overhaul- or, preferably, to be rewritten entirely. Whoever wrote this section appears to have been a high school or young college-aged student who, while undoubtedly meaning well, did not fully understand the content of what they had read. At present, it is written in a completely vague manner that leaves out vital information and is not representative of the plot. Some examples:

• The introduction section mentions sexual assault and kidnapping but these are missing from the plot summary.
• The kidnapping is described in a roundabout, passive manner that does not adequately portray Mr. B's involvement and culpability nor Pamela's own feelings about it (she herself refers to it as a "prison").
• The key scene where Mr. B attempts to rape Pamela is described as "he hides in her closet and pops out and tries to kiss her as she undresses for bed," which indicates that the writer did not comprehend this passage. The scene actually involves Mr. B in bed with Pamela, groping her breasts, his arms around her neck, while Pamela screams in terror and Mrs. Jervis desperately tries to throw herself in between to protect her. It is only when Pamela faints and Mrs. Jervis starts hysterically proclaiming that she is dead that Mr. B manages to control himself and leave.

Also missing from the plot summary are Mr. Andrews' attempt to recover his daughter and Mr. B's lies to cover up her whereabouts, as well as the fact that the house is an attempt by Mr. B to establish Pamela in her own household that she commands (as his mistress) against her will. I'm sure there are many other issues. The introduction also has Pamela's age wrong; the novel states that she is 15, not 16. I will change that, but I don't have time to tackle a rewrite of the plot right now. Hopefully someone who really enjoys this work can do so. If not, I'll see if I can come back to it and at least put together something that accurately describes the events of the novel. — Preceding unsigned comment added by MinervaELS (talk • contribs) 18:27, 7 February 2020 (UTC)