Pamela in Her Exalted Condition

Pamela in Her Exalted Condition follows the heroine of Richardson's hugely popular first novel into married life. In the process, he explores both the experience of women beyond the stage of courtship and provides a fascinating insight into the social and cultural life of the mid eighteenth century. The first ever scholarly edition of the novel, this volume features a critically edited text, general and textual introductions, full annotations and textual apparatus. Appendices describe all the editions published in Richardson's lifetime as well as early nineteenth-century editions. The original illustrations from the popular octavo edition of 1742 and Richardson's index are reproduced. The publication of this novel in the Cambridge edition allows the sequel to Pamela to take its rightful place in the critical study of Richardson's development as a novelist.

“"The text of the novel is presented with minimal intrusions through the judicious use of endnotes primarily about cultural references. Scholars of visual culture will appreciate the set of illustrations from the octavo edition of the novel appended to this text...Highly recommended." --Choice”

'For Richardson scholars, these meticulously edited volumes will represent an epoch in the field, since they will constitute the only comprehensive scholarly edition.' The Eighteenth Century
'Rivero's work included examining three dif­ferent first editions, which is better than the example cited earlier.' Kit Kincade, Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era
'Any reader who has fully absorbed the terrors of Pamela's marriage or pursued to the end the intensities of Clarissa will want to read Grandison too, and so will Jane Austen fans curious about the novel said to have been her favorite. What awaits them is a love story fueled by embarrassment, a forerunner to the modern romantic comedy but also a worthy successor to Clarissa, in which the protagonists face situations so abysmally awkward as to require of them heroic feats of tact and moral imagination. That we now have a magisterial scholarly edition in print is cause for celebration.' Sarah Raff, Eighteenth-Century Studies, on The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Samuel Richardson

Albert J. Rivero is Professor of English at Marquette University.

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