Passion and virtue : essays on the novels of Samuel Richardson

Love, lust and human suffering - passion in all its aspects - was Samuel Richardson's great theme.

The essays in "Passion and Virtue" are thematically united by the moral vision in Richardson's novels.

The novels reveal the conflicting demands of human passion, through the ennobling and destructive aspects of love and lust, and the attempt to achieve a virtuous existence through Christian suffering.

This conflict is considered and critically analyzed in 14 essays.

While Richardson's masterpiece, "Clarissa", receives the most attention, both "Pamela" and "Sir Charles Grandison" are also examined.