Correspondence and Letter Writing in Pamela and Evelina

By Jean Rose Clawater and Katherine Shell

18th Century British Literature

Winter Term, 2006

Annotated Bibliography Assignment

 

 

Jean Rose and Shell look beautiful before their Fall Formal in Fall 2005.

 

Annotated Bibliography in Word Format 

Annotated Bibliography

 

Conboy, Sheila C.  “Fabric and Fabrication in Richardson’s Pamela.”  ELH, 54.1 (Spring, 1987): 81-96.

 

            Conboy discusses the self-revealing nature of Pamela’s letters in the novel Pamela.  Through the course of her letter-writing, Pamela grows mentally and emotionally: “Pamela’s experiences and the process of writing lead to her self-discovery, while her letters—the organization of those experiences in a ‘kind of Novel…well-told’—bring Mr. B. to his” (82).  Conboy argues that just as the reader becomes familiar with Pamela through reading her letters, Mr. B. also better understands Pamela as an individual and as a result, becomes more of the kind of man Pamela respects.  Through her correspondence, Pamela gains the freedom she desires from Mr. B.’s tyrannous behavior as well as the freedom to grow as a woman.  This article articulates the ways in which Pamela creates a narrative from her letters and how she matures as a writer and a woman  throughout the course of the novel.

 

Cutting-Gray, Joanne.  “Writing Innocence:  Fanny Burney’s Evelina.” Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature, 9.1 (Spring, 1990):  43-57. 

 

Donovan, Robert.  “The Problem of Pamela, or, Virtue Unrewarded.”  Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, 3.3 (Summer, 1963):  377-395.

 

MacArthur, Elizabeth J.  “Devious Narratives:  Refusal of Closure in Two Eighteenth Century Epistolary Novels.”  Eighteenth Century Studies, 21.1 (Autumn, 1987):  1-20. 

 

            In her article, MacArthur cites some of the reasons why the eighteenth century British novel “has frequently been criticized as faulty or limited, and these criticisms may be in part a response to the form’s resistance to closure” (2).  However, rejecting the idea that epistolary novels should be condemned as incomplete in comparison to later novels, MacArthur attempts to redefine narrative and the complete novel as inclusive of the traits commonly associated with the epistolary novel.  Additionally, MacArthur raises the question that closure could be an insistence on reestablishing morality at the end of the novel, rather than an inherent part of a novelistic narrative.  Though her two novels of choice are the French novels Lettres d’une Peruvienne and Lettres ecrites de Lausanne, MacArthur’s ideas on closure and epistolary writings certainly fit the discussions of Pamela and Evelina.    

Markley, Robert.  “Recent Studies in Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Literature.”  Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, 37.3 (Summer, 1997):  637-672. 

 

Tucker, Irene.  “Writing Home:  Evelina, The Epistolary Novel and the Paradox of Property.”  ELH, 60.2 (Summer, 1993):  419-439. 

 

            Beginning her article with an event that occurred almost forty years before the publication of Evelina, Tucker examines some of the ways in which property is called into question with an epistolary novel.  The judges’ ruling of the case she cites states that the recipient is given the physical aspects of the letter, while the writer retains control over the ideas and thoughts expressed within the letter.  Tucker then states that “in choosing the form of the epistolary novel to tell the story of Evelina, Burney generalizes the paradox of owning letters into a paradox of property (421).  Additionally, Tucker shows the ways in which the epistolary form complicates the concept of the novel, since “the form of the epistolary novel is characterized by an implicit doubleness of both, since along with the writer and addressee of any given letter within the novel there exists a second writer and addressee—the author of the novel and the novel’s readers” (422). 

 

Watt, I. P.  “The Naming of Characters in Defoe, Richardson, and Fielding.” The Review of English Studies, 25.100 (October, 1949):  322-338.

 

 

Zaczek, Barbara.  Censored Sentiments: Letters and Censorship in Epistolary Novels and Conduct Material.  Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1997.

 

            Zaczek examines the role of female letter writing and censorship primarily in Eighteenth Century England.  She articulates that women were the main sources of correspondence in literature, and their writing demonstrated a junction of the private and public spheres.  Hence, women were able to gain a sort of freedom and voice in the public sphere and also risked having their private concerns made know to those outside of their private sphere.  She says in her Introduction that by looking at women’s letters in conduct books and literary theories, she outlines the ways in which women’s writing has influenced these novels.  Furthermore, she examines the role of censorship as a means of placing further control on women: “the role letters play within the epistolary novel affects in turn modes of control, and accounts for adaptation and application of new censoring strategies” (14).  She also studies the ways in which women censor their own letters in epistolary novels, creating a realm of fiction instead of a realm of truth that can be deceiving to the reader.  This book is useful in studying the epistolary novel as a result of censorship and fictional writing.