Pamela, in full Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded, novel in epistolary style by Samuel Richardson, published in 1740 and based on a story about a servant and the man who, failing to seduce her, marries her. After the death of her employer, the young maidservant Pamela finds herself having to rely on her wits and moral virtue to fend off the attentions of Lady B.'s son. Young Mr B gives Pamela his mother's clothing and then offers to pay her to acquiesce to his seduction. Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded is an epistolary novel first published in 1740 by English writer Samuel Richardson. Considered one of the first true English novels, it serves as Richardson's version of conduct literature about marriage.