Autonomous voices

The novels of Samuel Richardson are the essential topic of this book. Its main aim is to use Bakhtin's definition of polyphony as a way into Richardson's work and, in turn, to provide a basis from which to revise Bakhtin.&ltBR> After tracing the development of psychological realism in the eighteenth-century novel and the growing potential for autonomy in the fictional character in general, the book goes on to examine the potential for polyphony which first emerges in &ltI>Pamela and reaches its height in &ltI>Clarissa.&ltBR> Between editions of this momentous novel, Richardson felt compelled to make frantic attempts to control the reader's interpretation of the text. Lovelace - the villain of &ltI>Clarissa - acquires a degree of autonomy that bears startlingly vivid testimony to the plurality of human identity itself. &ltI>Sir Charles Grandison, Richardson's last novel, is a vivid retreat from the powerful effect of Lovelace.