Samuel Richardson: biography of the writer

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Samuel Richardson: biography of the writer
Samuel Richardson: biography of the writer

Video: Samuel Richardson: biography of the writer

Video: Samuel Richardson: biography of the writer
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Samuel Richardson - English writer of the XVIII century, the creator of "sensitive" literature. Richardson is recognized as England's first novelist. In his works, the author uses the epistolary style, setting out the events in the form of personal frank letters that the heroes of the novels wrote to each other. The writer penetrates the souls of the characters, subtly conveying all the nuances of their feelings to the reader on the book pages. In addition to his career as a writer, Samuel worked as a printer and publisher. He has published about 500 newspapers, magazines and scientific papers.

Portrait of Samuel Richardson
Portrait of Samuel Richardson

Samuel Richardson gained worldwide fame thanks to his epistolary novels:

  1. "Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded" (1740).
  2. “Clarissa, or the Story of a young lady” (1741).
  3. The History of Sir Charles Gradison (1753).

Biography of Samuel Richardson

The writer was born in early 1689 in the village of Mackworth, Derbyshire. In addition to him, the family had eight more children. Samuel studied at a rural school. He spent his youth writing letters and entertaining his friends with it. Already at the age of thirteen he helpedrural girls to answer letters from fans. In London, he studied the skill of a printer, after which, having founded his own business, he created one of the largest printing houses in London.

Private life

Richardson has been married twice. His first wife Martha gave birth to him 5 boys and one girl, three boys were named after their father, but all of Richardson's sons died at an early age. The wife died after six years of marriage shortly before the death of the fifth son.

After that, Samuel married a second time to a girl named Elizabeth, who also bore him six children. Of these, they were a boy, also Samuel, who died shortly after birth.

Creativity

Despite his seemingly prominent writing prowess, for the fifty-year-old Richardson, nothing foreshadowed his future as the great novelist of his time. He published his first novel, Pamela, in 1741. Despite the fact that "Pamela" became very popular and aroused the active support of other writers, Richardson himself did not consider it a worthy work of fiction.

Illustration for the novel
Illustration for the novel

Following the first novel, a second was released - "Clarissa, or the Story of a Young Lady", expressing important issues of personal life and reflecting the consequences of the bad behavior of both parents and children in relation to the family. And then followed the novel "The History of Sir Charles Gridison." The writer's works are not full of events, the main thing in them is not the plot, but the analysis of the feelings and emotions of the characters.

Richardson's work has influenced writers such asJane Austen, Russo, Henry Fielding and many more.

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