I am almost half way done Pamela, and am surprised to find that it is not a hard book to read. That is, that I can read a sentence without wanting to cause the book some harm. (ahem…robinson cruesoe… haha) The only downfall with this novel for me so far, is its length, and when the narrator (Pamela) begins to ramble. I heard that she will be quite annoying by the end of it, but so far she is not dreadful. I enjoy epistolary novels, but wish that in Pamela we had more letters from other people as well. We have a few from her parents in reply to her letters, but not many and there are no letters from anyone else. At times Pamela seems she is quite a bit older than 15, but at others she is true to her age. The other characters describe her (from Pamela’s own letters and recollections) as beyond her years, and this is probably why she seems so much older; however, as these are Pamela’s letters and recollections, we never know what is definitely true, what she has exaggerated, and so on. She claims to be honest and true, but she could still be exaggerating. I hope to be halfway by tomorrow, and have a better judgement of Pamela.
Yes, you are correct: that is one of the tensions of the novel: we are expected to accept Pamela’s version — she is, after all, the most virtuous — but we also know that first-person narratives are subjective. An interesting conundrum.
True. We have to rely on what is told through the eyes of a young girl, because it is only told to us through her letters.
I think that is what might have inspired Haywood to write Anti-Pamela as a series of letters and points of view from the perspective of several characters instead of just one.
Good job