2008-09-26 Thank God this is over

I was so excited before I read this book. It was my first year at university and I was eager to discover the gems of 18th century literature. This is not one of them.

Both characters are revolting. The 'hero' is a failed raper of very low IQ (I blame the intramarriages of the ruling classes) as he cannot succeed to rape an unprotected 15 year old when she is in his sole care.

Pamela on the other hand seems to be considered either virtuous (by the 18th century reader) or oppressed but in my mind she only seemed as a calculating little wrench who is all too aware that in this environment her virginity is the only thing she has to invest on climbing the social ladder and she is using it ingeniously on simple minded Mr B. And that would be all wonderful (who doesn't love Becky Sharp?) if she did not exposed as to 500 pages of badly written accounts of how her sole concern is morality [yeah, right, the moment she sees the man who abhors could make her fortune by marrying her she discovers she was passionately in love with him all along].

That this type of hypocrisy or false confidence had once been presented as en example to young ladies is more interesting for the student of cultural history than literary students.

For those searching for a good read there is Fielding!