Pamela (Barnes & Noble Digital Library): Or Virtue Rewarded

Published in 1740, this hugely successful epistolary novel launched Richardson's literary career.  Some readers and critics saw the story of the efforts of a virtuous young servant girl to resist the seductions of her master as tendentious if not hypocritical morality, others as sensationalistic near-pornography, and still others as a praiseworthy illustration of Christian morality.