'Christopher Johnson's Samuel Richardson, Comedic Narrative and the Culture of Domestic Violence: Abused Pamela begins with the crucial insight that Richardson's fiction repeatedly depicts abusive relationships and builds on that insight by bringing to bear genre theory, modern sociology, and eighteenth-century theology to show that abuse is a central concern in these novels. It's hard to overstate how important this argument is: Pamela in particular has long been treated as a text that simply rewards its heroine's virtue with marriage, resulting in readings that take this abusive marriage as a norm or standard for heterosexual relationships. Johnson is the first to argue not only that Richardson depicts abusive relationship dynamics but also that the novels' theology indicates that these abusive relationships are not a reward at all. We have needed this book for a long time, and it will be important not only to scholars of Richardson's fiction and of the eighteenth-century novel but also to undergraduate and graduate students. Johnson's clarity and frankness is refreshing and heartening, and his work is very much needed.'Dr. Marta Kvande,Texas Tech University 'A good literary study based on a detailed reading of the work of a literary genius (I have no doubt that Richardson was one), it challenges us to think beyond the works under discussion to the wider implications of literature as an encounter with the world we know and the world unknown. Johnson most ably presented this reader with that challenge and for that I am very grateful.'Melvyn NewProfessor Emeritus of English, University of Florida, USA
