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  3. The Cambridge Edition of the Correspondence of Samuel Richardson

This is a full scholarly edition of the complete correspondence of Samuel Richardson (1689–1761), containing all known letters from and to Richardson, including correspondence concerning the novels Pamela and Clarissa. There will be twelve volumes in all, each edited, with full editorial apparatus, by a team of major scholars.

  • General Editors: Thomas Keymer, University of Oxford, Peter Sabor, McGill University, Montreal

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6 results in The Cambridge Edition of the Correspondence of Samuel Richardson

Correspondence Primarily on Pamela and Clarissa (1732–1749)
  • Samuel Richardson
  • Edited by Louise Curran, George Justice, Sören Hammerschmidt
  • Published online:
    06 June 2024
    Print publication:
    27 June 2024
  • Samuel Richardson was one of the great letter-writers in English. His three great novels, Pamela, Clarissa, and Sir Charles Grandison were written in epistolary form, and Richardson himself was known in his time for the way he used his letters for both professional and personal purposes. As a printer, Richardson corresponded with authors, readers, and other printers and publishers. As a friend, he supported his correspondents when they were personally struggling. As a novelist, he engaged readers both before and after the publication of his works, soliciting their opinion and defending his own methods. Correspondence Primarily on Pamela and Clarissa (1732–1749) gives us Richardson the printer, the friend, and the novelist in the crucial early years of his unexpected success and fame as a literary writer, providing insight into how and why he created innovative works that changed the course of literary history.

Correspondence with Lady Bradshaigh and Lady Echlin
  • Samuel Richardson
  • Edited by Peter Sabor
  • Published online:
    16 July 2022
    Print publication:
    17 November 2016
  • Samuel Richardson (1689–1761), renowned English novelist and master printer, was also a prolific letter writer. The Cambridge Edition of the Correspondence of Samuel Richardson is the first complete edition of his letters. These three volumes contain his correspondence, much of it published for the first time, with two fascinating women: Dorothy, Lady Bradshaigh (1705–85) and her sister Elizabeth, Lady Echlin (1704–82). Lady Bradshaigh was Richardson's most prolific and important correspondent, challenging him about a range of issues, literary and otherwise, including his intentions for Clarissa and Sir Charles Grandison, in an iconoclastic style. Lady Echlin lived in Ireland for much of her life and provided Richardson with information on Irish issues, including the Dublin editions of his novels. The scholarly apparatus in this volume furnishes a wealth of material about these women's lives and their milieu, affording many insights into eighteenth-century English and Irish social and literary history.

Correspondence of Richardson's Final Years (1755–1761)
  • Samuel Richardson
  • Edited by Shelley King, John B. Pierce
  • Published online:
    07 July 2022
    Print publication:
    05 September 2019
  • Samuel Richardson (1689–1761) was a prominent eighteenth-century printer and businessman as well as an important and influential English novelist. He was also a prolific letter writer. This volume in the first ever full edition of Richardson's correspondence offers a fascinating glimpse of the writer in his final years - at the height of his professional powers but facing the challenging circumstances of physical decline and commercial conflict. The collection of miscellaneous letters addresses a variety of issues ranging from details of Richardson's printing operation to his mentorship of women writers including Sarah Fielding, Anna Meades and Frances Sheridan. Other correspondents of note include Samuel Johnson, Meta Klopstock, Thomas Sheridan and Tobias Smollett. Taken together this series of letters draws an intimate picture of Richardson's professional and personal circles as they exchange family gossip, business advice, literary anecdotes and news of the day.

Correspondence with Aaron Hill and the Hill Family
  • Samuel Richardson
  • Edited by Christine Gerrard
  • Published online:
    30 June 2022
    Print publication:
    19 December 2013
  • Samuel Richardson (1689–1761) was an established master printer when, at the age of 51, he published his first novel, Pamela, and immediately became one of the most influential and admired writers of his time. Not only were all Richardson's novels written in epistolary form: he was also a prolific letter-writer himself. This volume in the first ever full edition of Richardson's correspondence includes his letters to and from Aaron Hill, the poet, dramatist and entrepreneur (1685–1750). Hill was Richardson's earliest literary friend and advisor as he embarked on a new career as a novelist. This correspondence offers fascinating insight into the compositional processes not just of the two Pamela novels, but of Richardson's later novels Clarissa and The History of Sir Charles Grandison. The volume also contains Richardson's correspondence with Hill's three literary daughters, which forms an invaluable chapter in the history of women's writing and literary criticism.

Correspondence with George Cheyne and Thomas Edwards
  • Samuel Richardson
  • Edited by David E. Shuttleton, John A. Dussinger
  • Published online:
    30 June 2022
    Print publication:
    19 December 2013
  • Samuel Richardson (1689–1761), among the most important and influential English novelists, was also a prolific letter writer. Beyond its extraordinary range, his correspondence holds special interest as that of a practising epistolary novelist, who thought long and hard about the letter as a form. The Cambridge Edition of the Correspondence of Samuel Richardson is the first complete edition of his letters. The present volume contains his correspondences with Dr George Cheyne and Thomas Edwards, linked not only by their pronounced medical content but also by their generally unguarded character. An early admirer of Richardson's Pamela (1740–41), Cheyne elicits some of the novelist's most significant statements concerning his own literary practice and tastes. Edwards, an astute literary critic as well as notable sonneteer, draws Richardson into expressing some remarkable insights as a close reader of poetry and prose.

Correspondence with Sarah Wescomb, Frances Grainger and Laetitia Pilkington
  • Samuel Richardson
  • Edited by John A. Dussinger
  • Published online:
    05 November 2014
    Print publication:
    13 November 2014
  • Samuel Richardson (1689–1761), renowned master printer and celebrated English novelist, wrote hundreds of letters during his lifetime. The Cambridge Edition of the Correspondence of Samuel Richardson is the first complete edition of these letters. This volume contains his correspondences, many published for the first time, with three very different young women, all seeking to find their voice within family and society while corresponding with a celebrated author and moralist. Sarah Wescomb and Frances Grainger, two young, unmarried correspondents, sought paternal advice from the middle-aged author and in the process contested stances taken in his novels. Laetitia Pilkington, an accused adulteress, offers poignant glimpses into an impoverished woman's struggles to survive in Grub Street. The scholarly apparatus in this volume provides ample information about these three women's lives and their milieu, giving fascinating insights into eighteenth-century English social and literary history.