Page "Samuel Richardson" Paragraph 40

In 1749, Richardson's female friends started asking him to create a male figure as virtuous as his heroines " Pamela " and " Clarissa " in order to " give the world his idea of a good man and fine gentleman combined ".

Although he did not at first agree, he eventually complied, starting work on a book in this vein in June 1750.

Near the end of 1751, Richardson sent a draft of the novel The History of Sir Charles Grandison to Mrs Donnellan, and the novel was being finalized in the middle of 1752.

When the novel was being printed in 1753, Richardson discovered that Irish printers were trying to pirate the work.

He immediately fired those he suspected of giving the printers advanced copies of Grandison and relied on multiple London printing firms to help him produce an authentic edition before the pirated version was sold.

The first four volumes were published on 13 November 1753, and in December the next two would follow.

The remaining volume was published in March to complete a seven volume series while a six volume set was simultaneously published, and these met success.

In Grandison, Richardson was unwilling to risk having a negative response to any " rakish " characteristics that Lovelace embodied and denigrated the immoral characters " to show those mischievous young admirers of Lovelace once and for all that the rake should be avoided ".