Come here. I want to tell you something. Not here. [carries you to the top of a desolate, wind-blasted continental plateau that was once covered in shallow tropical seas] [Sotto voce] I love the Western Canon. [pause, leaps off the edge doing big Creed arms as vultures carry me away] This is some general unsolicited advice for readers of all kinds, but if you are (like I was) a current student of the humanities, particularly…

Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded is an epistolary novel by Samuel Richardson, first published in 1740. It tells the story of a beautiful 15-year old maidservant named Pamela Andrews, whose nobleman master, Mr. B, makes unwanted advances towards her after the death of his mother, whose maid she was since age 12. Mr. B is infatuated with her, first by her looks and then her innocence and intelligence, but his high rank hinders him from proposing marriage. He abducts…