Pamela Censured

WILLIAM ANDREWS CLARK MEMORIAL LIBRARY University of California, Los Angeles 1976
William E. Conway, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library George Robert Guffey, University of California, Los Angeles Maximillian E. Novak, University of California, Los Angeles David S. Rodes, University of California, Los Angeles
James L. Clifford, Columbia University Ralph Cohen, University of Virginia Vinton A. Dearing, University of California, Los Angeles Arthur Friedman, University of Chicago Louis A. Landa, Princeton University Earl Miner, Princeton University Samuel H. Monk, University of Minnesota Everett T. Moore, University of California, Los Angeles Lawrence Clark Powell, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library James Sutherland, University College, London H. T. Swedenberg, Jr., University of California, Los Angeles Robert Vosper, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library
Beverly J. Onley, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library

Fielding's parody is too well known to be described in detail here. Though his sophisticated wit lashes out in a number of directions, he attacks Pamela on primarily two fronts: in prefatory letters he assails those who would praise Richardson's novel for its moral lessons, while in the body of Shamela he burlesques the psychological motivations of Pamela herself, showing that she is motivated by mercenary vartue rather than angelic virtue. In spite of its hasty composition, Shamela clearly displays a kind of literary charm and insight that was soon to characterize Joseph Andrews and Tom Jones .
To Richardson's contemporaries, Pamela Censured must consequently have seemed a much more serious attack than Shamela . The humor of Fielding's parody might be misinterpreted or at least dismissed as low ; in Pamela Censured , the rather personal attack on the author of Pamela and the precise censure of specific passages could not, however, be misconstrued or ignored. Moreover, the critical principle behind Pamela Censured appears quite sound, at least on its most simple level: Pamela is bad because it violates what might be called a literary truth in labeling law. Casting himself in the role of consumer advocate, the author of Pamela Censured systematically attempts to show that Pamela fails to live up to the advertisement on its title page: