Melinda Palmer Kolb

Samuel Richardson's 'The History of Sir Charles Grandison' was praised at its original reception in the mid-eighteenth century for capturing the essence of its contemporary society and of human nature, but the seemingly flawless protagonist could never claim a place in the canon comparable to that of Pamela or Clarissa. Recently, however, Richardson's final novel has become the object of a renewed critical interest. In particular, the religious and philosophical dimensions of this monumental work of fiction offer an immense field of study that has begun to be, but in large part remains to be explored. The contribution of this dissertation will be to set the novel in the intellectual context of its creation by returning to precisely that in the text which originally won its acclaim: a "modern" literary representation of morality founded in religion and underpinning society.

The initial course of this study will be through the long-established and still very plausible thesis that the novel 'Grandison' has its source in the genre of the conduct book. Much of what is implied in such a thesis – both in terms of formal features and of thematic content – has largely been taken for granted and, thus, is due for reexamination. If indeed the very intellectual currents flowing through both religious and secular works on conduct as well as through theories on morality and society flow also through Richardson's novel, we have in 'Grandison' a valuable literary artifact showing enlightenment theory and practice in action. Although, of course, this is to say enlightenment of a peculiarly English sort, one that is quite different from that for which Richardson's philosopher-novelist contemporaries in France are famed.

The conspicuous and quite unique juxtaposition of Protestantism and Catholicism, the all-subsuming marriage paradigm, the famous – or rather notorious – development of the Christian Hero: all these defining features of 'Grandison' witness to Richardson's concern with the source and nature of morality and its functional role in society. The rather simplistic view of the hero's exemplary morality as "priggish", pelagian do-goodery does not suffice to elucidate this relationship between morality and society in the novel. A central objective of this dissertation is, then, to discern the subtler shades of Richardson's representation of the morality-society theme and thereby to refine our understanding of the hero's actions. The richly varied textual evidence buried in the mass of narrative detail creates particularly fertile ground for the sort of analysis to be undertaken here – the aim of which is to uncover the eighteenth-century understanding of conduct, morality, and religion both in and beyond the world of the novel.