A
satire written in 1741 by
Henry Fielding to attack the
literary style and the content of
Pamela, a novel by
Samuel Richardson.
Richardson's
heroine was portrayed as a
virtuous girl who was under constant threat of losing her
virginity to her
employer, Mr. B.
Fielding's work told the same story, with
slight modifications-- Mr. B was known as Mr. Booby,
Pamela as
Shamela, and the actions that
Pamela makes in order to maintain her
virtue are depicted in an entirely different light. The '
virtue' that Pamela talks about constantly in
Richardson's work is known as 'vartue' in
Shamela, and the actions that
Pamela takes to stave off the advances of Mr. B are depicted as attempts by
Shamela to entice Mr. Booby to further ridiculous actions.
Fielding's main complaint with
Richardson's work was the
epistolary style, which necessitated that
Pamela's actions be viewed through her eyes and not in an unbiased light. He was also disgusted with the amount of praise
Richardson gave to
Pamela's '
moral' actions. The
parody was received with great delight by the more educated population, and helped pave the way for
Fielding's later works.