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"Памела"

readeralexey — Tue, 16 Dec 2025 18:50:34 GMT

Вознаграждена ли добродетель Памелы?

Как известно, Филдинг неоднократно и в разных формах полемизировал с Ричардсоном по поводу его романа. Он написал (как считается) пародию "Шамела", переосмыслил сюжет "Памелы" в "Джозефе Эндрюсе", а также посвятил проблеме, вынесенной в заглавие романа Ричардсона, одну из "теоретических" главок "Тома Джонса" (книга XV). В ней он объявляет концепцию "вознагражденной добродетели" Ричардсона ложной, не христианской и подрывающей разумные доводы в пользу бессмертия души. Вот этот текст Филдинга почти полностью:

There are a set of religious, or rather moral writers, who teach that virtue is the certain road to happiness, and vice to misery, in this world. A very wholesome and comfortable doctrine, and to which we have but one objection, namely, that it is not true.

Indeed, if by virtue these writers mean the exercise of those cardinal virtues, which like good housewives stay at home, and mind only the business of their own family, I shall very readily concede the point; for so surely do all these contribute and lead to happiness, that I could almost wish, in violation of all the antient and modern sages, to call them rather by the name of wisdom, than by that of virtue; for, with regard to this life, no system, I conceive, was ever wiser than that of the antient Epicureans, who held this wisdom to constitute the chief good; nor foolisher than that of their opposites, those modern epicures, who place all felicity in the abundant gratification of every sensual appetite.

But if by virtue is meant (as I almost think it ought) a certain relative quality, which is always busying itself without-doors, and seems as much interested in pursuing the good of others as its own; I cannot so easily agree that this is the surest way to human happiness; because I am afraid we must then include poverty and contempt, with all the mischiefs which backbiting, envy, and ingratitude, can bring on mankind, in our idea of happiness; nay, sometimes perhaps we shall be obliged to wait upon the said happiness to a jail; since many by the above virtue have brought themselves thither.
<…>
This, therefore, would seem an exception to the above rule, if indeed it was a rule; but as we have in our voyage through life seen so many other exceptions to it, we chuse to dispute the doctrine on which it is founded, which we don’t apprehend to be Christian, which we are convinced is not true, and which is indeed destructive of one of the noblest arguments that reason alone can furnish for the belief of immortality.

Что бы вы ответили на это Филдингу на месте Ричардсона?

Как вы думаете, дает ли текст романа основания для позиции "анти-памелистов", считающих героиню ловкой и лицемерной интриганкой, добивающейся своей цели (брака с богатым аристократом) посредством психологических манипуляций?

Как следует из первого письма Памелы, мистер Би стал его первым читателем, как и некоторых последующих писем и дневника Памелы. Как вы думаете, повлияла ли осознаваемая Памелой возможность прочтения мистером Би ее писем на их содержание? Если да, то как?

Творческая биография Ричардсона

readeralexey — Tue, 16 Dec 2025 18:19:54 GMT

Ричардсон-писатель вызывает у вас восхищение или жалость? If both, чего больше и почему?

Сравните женские персонажи и их судьбы в изображении Дефо (Молль Флендерс, Роксана) и Ричардсона (Памела, Кларисса). (Можно учесть общие черты биографии двух авторов, например, что оба они принадлежали к пуританской культуре, были выходцами из буржуазной среды, начали писать в зрелом возрасте...)

Прокомментируйте:

‘O Richardson! In spite of ourselves we play a role in your works, we take part in your conversations, we approve, we blame, we marvel…’ Denis Diderot

‘If you were to read Richardson for the story, your impatience would be so much fretted that you would hang yourself.’ Samuel Johnson

"Кларисса"

readeralexey — Wed, 29 May 2024 16:04:58 GMT

Читаю "Клариссу", мочи нет, какая скучная дура! (с) Александр Пушкин

Согласны?

Прокомментируйте:

‘A Man gets a Girl from her Parents – violates her Free Will, & She dies of a broken heart. That is all the Story’. Hester Thrale Piozzi

“Such deep penetration into nature; such power to raise and alarm the passions, few writers, either ancient or modern, have been possessed of. My affections are so strongly engaged, and my fears are so raised, by what I have already read, that I cannot express my eagerness to see the rest…” H. Fielding (after reading first installment of Clarissa)

"This quintessentially 18th-century novel is actually a very contemporary text. In an age when we communicate less and less by speech, and more and more by written words (on screen if not on paper), when we can so easily reveal more of ourselves than we intend, when social media make us more vulnerable than we have ever been to careless communication, Clarissa is a novel for our times." Lynn Shepherd