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Samuel Richardson: Early Works: ‘Aesop’s Fables’ ‘Letters Written to and for Particular Friends’ and Other Works

This volume, one of the first to appear in the impressive critical Cambridge Edition of the Works of Samuel Richardson, collects what can be confidently designated as “Early Works”. Richardson’s restless activity as printer, publisher and (sub)editor of other writers’ work makes it not always easy to separate texts genuinely authored by him and others where his share is more problematic, Alexander Pettit’s impeccably thorough introduction presents the evidence and possible uncertainties, to arrive at a plausible canon. The principal texts reproduced are The Apprentice’s Vademecum of 1733, A Seasonable Examination of the Pleas and Pretentions of the Proprietors of and Subscribers to, Play-Houses, Errected in Defiance of the Royal Licence (1735), the collection of Æsop’s Fables, and, probably the most original item, the collection of Letters Written to and for Particular Friends (1741), frequently seen as a precursor of the sensationally successful novels in letters, Pamela (1740–41), Clarissa (1747–48) and Sir Charles Grandison (1753–54). Added are Six Original Letters upon Duelling, probably omitted by Richardson from his edition for reasons explained in the “General Introduction” (p. lxxxviii f.), and, as Appendix, what the edition “somewhat uneasily” assumes to be Richardson’s first publication, the uncompromisingly doctrinaire pamphlet The Infidel Convicted: or, A Brief Defence of the Christian Revelation (1731). Only two of the texts were reprinted in Richardson’s lifetime, Æsop’s Fables twice and the Letters Written to and for Particular Friends five times. In each case, as throughout this Cambridge edition, Alexander Pettit follows the text of the first edition, with minimal emendation. He has supplied a substantial introduction and some 103 packed pages of explanatory notes.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.37307/j.1866-5381.2012.02.49
Lizenz: ESV-Lizenz
ISSN: 1866-5381
Ausgabe / Jahr: 2 / 2012
Veröffentlicht: 2012-12-14
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Dokument Samuel Richardson: Early Works: ‘Aesop’s Fables’ ‘Letters Written to and for Particular Friends’ and Other Works