In his next work, _Clarissa Harlowe_, which appeared in 1749, he has drawn
the picture of a perfect woman preserving her purity amid seductive
gayeties, and suffering sorrows to which those of the Virgin Martyr are
light. We have, too, an excellent portraiture of a bold and wicked, but
clever and gifted man--Lovelace.
His third and last novel, _Sir Charles Grandison_, appeared in 1753. The
hero, _Sir Charles_, is the model of a Christian gentleman; but is,
perhaps, too faultless for popular appreciation.
In his delineations of humbler natures,--country girls like
_Pamela_,--Richardson is happiest: in his descriptions of high life he has
failed from ignorance. He was not acquainted with the best society, and
all his grandees are stilted, artificial, and affected; but even in this
fault he is of value, for he shows us how men of his class at that time
regarded the society of those above them.
These works, which, notwithstanding their length, were devoured eagerly as
soon as they appeared, are little read at present, and exist rather as
historical interpreters of an age that is past, than as present light
literature: they have been driven from our shelves by Scott, Dickens,
Thackeray, and a host of charming novelists since his day.
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