Book contents
- The Origins of the English Marriage Plot
- The Origins of the English Marriage Plot
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction Historicising the English Marriage Plot
- Chapter 1 Church, State and the Public Politics of Marriage
- Chapter 2 Clandestine Marriage, Commerce and the Theatre
- Chapter 3 The New Fiction
- Chapter 4 The Patriot Marriage Plot
- Chapter 5 Literary Marriage Plots
- Afterword
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 3 - The New Fiction
Samuel Richardson and the Anglican Wedding
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 July 2019
- The Origins of the English Marriage Plot
- The Origins of the English Marriage Plot
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction Historicising the English Marriage Plot
- Chapter 1 Church, State and the Public Politics of Marriage
- Chapter 2 Clandestine Marriage, Commerce and the Theatre
- Chapter 3 The New Fiction
- Chapter 4 The Patriot Marriage Plot
- Chapter 5 Literary Marriage Plots
- Afterword
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
In the summer of 1753, while controversy over the Marriage Act and the Jewish Naturalisation Act was in full flow, Richardson, by then a successful London printer and a famous author, wrote to Elizabeth Carter in support of both bills. The letter has been understood to indicate that he was a proponent of the Court Whig programme. But that is not quite so. On the marriage question in particular, Richardson’s opinions differed from those which motivated Hardwicke’s legislation, even though his novels also rejected the modes of clandestine marriage that the legislation abolished.
This chapter explores the precise nature of Richardson’s affinities and differences with the Hardwicke legislation in the context of his two marriage-focussed novels, Pamela and The History of Sir Charles Grandison.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Origins of the English Marriage PlotLiterature, Politics and Religion in the Eighteenth Century, pp. 85 - 133Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019