Editing Samuel Richardson (section)

===First novel===
[[File:Samuel Richardson by Miss Highmore (cropped).jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.1|''Samuel Richardson reading aloud the manuscript of [[Sir Charles Grandison]] to a group of friends in 1751''. Coloured Engraving by Miss Highmore. [[National Portrait Gallery, London|National Portrait Gallery]], [[Westminster]], England.]]
Work continued to improve, and Richardson printed the ''Daily Journal'' between 1736 and 1737, and the ''[[Daily Gazetteer]]'' in 1738.<ref name="Dobson"/>{{rp |15}} During his time printing the ''Daily Journal'', he was also printer to the "Society for the Encouragement of Learning", a group that tried to help authors become independent from publishers, but collapsed soon after.<ref name="Dobson"/>{{rp |15}} In December 1738, Richardson's printing business was successful enough to allow him to lease a house in [[Fulham]] in London.<ref name="Sale"/>{{rp |11}} This house, which would be Richardson's residence from 1739 to 1754, was later named "The Grange" in 1836.<ref name="Dobson"/>{{rp |17}} In 1739, Richardson was asked by his friends Charles Rivington and John Osborn to write "a little volume of Letters, in a common style, on such subjects as might be of use to those country readers, who were unable to indite for themselves".<ref name="Dobson"/>{{rp |18}} While writing this volume, Richardson was inspired to write his [[Debut novel|first novel]].<ref name="Dobson"/>{{rp |19}}

Richardson made the transition from master printer to novelist on 6 November 1740 with the publication of ''[[Pamela: or, Virtue Rewarded]]''.<ref name = "Sale"/>{{rp |1}} ''Pamela'' was sometimes regarded as "the [[first novel in English]]"<ref name = "Sale"/>{{rp |1}} or the first [[modern novel]]. Richardson explained the origins of the work:

{{blockquote |In the progress of [Rivington's and Osborn's collection], writing two or three letters to instruct handsome girls, who were obliged to go out to service, as we phrase it, how to avoid the snares that might be laid against their virtue, and hence sprung ''Pamela''... Little did I think, at first, of making one, much less two volumes of it... I thought the story, if written in an easy and natural manner, suitably to the simplicity of it, might possibly introduce a new species of writing, that might possibly turn young people into a course of reading different from the pomp and parade of romance-writing, and dismissing the improbable and marvellous, with which novels generally abound, might tend to promote the cause of religion and virtue.<ref name="Dobson"/>{{rp |26}}}}

[[File:Richardson pamela 1741.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.2|Title page of ''Pamela'']]
After Richardson started the work on 10 November 1739, his wife and her friends became so interested in the story that he finished it on 10 January 1740.<ref name="Dobson"/>{{rp |27}} Pamela Andrews, the heroine of ''Pamela'', represented "Richardson's insistence upon well-defined feminine roles" and was part of a common fear held during the 18th century that women were "too bold".<ref name="Flynn"/>{{rp |56}} In particular, her "zeal for housewifery" was included as a proper role of women in society.<ref name="Flynn"/>{{rp |67}} Although ''Pamela'' and the title heroine were popular and gave a proper model for how women should act, they inspired "a storm of anti-Pamelas" (like Henry Fielding's ''[[Shamela]]'' and ''[[Joseph Andrews]]'' and [[Eliza Haywood]]'s ''[[The Anti-Pamela; or, Feign'd Innocence Detected|The Anti-Pamela]]'') because the character "perfectly played her part".<ref name="Flynn"/>{{rp |136}}

Later that year, Richardson printed Rivington and Osborn's book which inspired ''Pamela'' under the title of ''Letters written to and for particular Friends, on the most important Occasions. Directing not only the requisite Style and Forms to be observed in writing'' Familiar Letters; ''but how to think and act justly and prudently, in the common Concerns of Human Life''.<ref name="Dobson"/>{{rp |19}} The book contained many anecdotes and lessons on how to live, but Richardson did not care for the work and it was never expanded even though it went into six editions during his life.<ref name="Dobson"/>{{rp |25}} He went so far as to tell a friend, "This volume of letters is not worthy of your perusal" because they were "intended for the lower classes of people".<ref name="Dobson"/>{{rp |25}}

Multiple sequels to Pamela were written by other writers, such as ''Pamela's Conduct in High Life'', which was written by John Kelly and published by Ward and Chandler in September 1741. Published that same year were two anonymous sequels: ''Pamela in High Life'' and ''The Life of Pamela'', the latter being a third-person retelling of both Richardson's original novel and Kelly's continuation. These unofficial sequels capitalized off the character's popularity and readers desire to learn what happened to Pamela and Mr. B after the conclusion of Richardson's novel.<ref name=":0">Sabor, Peter. "Samuel Richardson." ''The Cambridge Companion to English Novelists, Cambridge.'' Edited by Adrian Poole. Cambridge University Press, 2009''. ProQuest.''</ref> This compelled Richardson to write a sequel to the novel, ''[[Pamela in her Exalted Condition]]'', in December 1741.<ref name="Dobson" /> The novel had a poorer reception than the first, as Peter Sabor writes, "the continuation is a far blander affair than the original work," focusing on Pamela's gentility and married life.<ref name=":0" /> The public's interest in the characters was waning, and this was only furthered by Richardson's focusing on Pamela discussing morality, literature, and philosophy.<ref name="Dobson"/>{{rp |39}}