Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded (Annotated‪)‬

Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded is an epistolary book by Samuel Richardson, first published in 1740. It tells the story of a beautiful 15-year old maidservant named Pamela Andrews, whose country landowner master, Mr. B, makes unwanted advances towards her after the death of his mother, whose maid Pamela had been since age 12. Mr. B is infatuated with her, first by her looks and then her innocence and intelligence, but his high rank hinders him from proposing marriage. He abducts her, locks her up in one of his estates, and attempts to seduce and rape her. She rejects him continually, but starts to realize that she is falling in love with him. He intercepts her letters to her parents; reading them, he becomes even more enamored by her innocence, intelligence, and continuous escape attempts. Her virtue is eventually rewarded when he sincerely proposes an equitable marriage to her. In the novel's second part, Pamela attempts to build a successful relationship with him and to acclimatize to upper class society. The story, a best-seller of its time, was very widely read but criticized for its perceived licentiousness.

This edition has been formatted for your reader, with an active table of contents.  It has also been annotated, with additional information about the book and its author, including an overview, plot, genre, literary significance, adaptations, allusions, biographical and bibliographical information.