By this time Richardson was nearing 60, and might reasonably have held his hand. But the welcome accorded to Fielding's 'Tom Jones,> coupled with the importunities of his coterie of lady friends, soon engaged him in a third effort, the object of which was to delineate a model good man and fine gentle man combined. This was the 'History of Sir Charles Grandison' (1753-54), a book which still has its admirers, though it does not by any means attain the tragic level of issa.> That the hero of such a work should be something of a prig is inevitable: but he has many estimable qualities which are not ridicu lous; and he is surrounded by a bevy of fe male worshippers who are drawn with un cuestionable skill. Neither Clementina nor Harriet Byron could have been conceived by an inferior artist. It is easy to make fun of the little printer's superexcellent central figure; but there must,: in spite of his long-windedness, have been something in the personage who could attract the admiration of both Ruskin and the Master of Balliol.
Beyond a very popular paper in Johnson's Rambler, Richardson wrote nothing more of importance. He continued to prosper in his business, made money, became Master of the Stationers' Company, and eventually Law Printer to the king. He was a nervous, in offensive, sensitive valetudinarian, delighting in the stimulus of feminine adulation rather than in the robust criticism of his own His style is hopelessly pedestrian and diffuse; but it has an extraordinary cumulative powdr which attracts, and by degrees detains, the persever ing reader. His faculty of minute imagination
is wonderful; and he gradually acquired an ex, traordinary insight into the workings. of the female heart. The English fiction which fol lowed developed itself on somewhat different lines; but it is impossible to deny to him the credit of inaugurating the novel of sentimental analysis, which for a time became the fashion, even more in France and Germany than in England. See CLAV1SSA HARLOWL Bibliography.— Richardson's life has been written by Mrs. A. L. Barbauld, 'Memoir' pre fixed to 'Correspondence' (6 vols., 1804) ; by Miss C. L. Thomson (1900), and by Austin Dobson, 'English Men of Letters' (1902). Consult also Scott's 'Lives of the Novelists' (1825) • Mrs. Oliphant, Blackwood's Maga zine (March 1869) . • H. D. Traill, Contem porary Review (October 1883), and Texte's 'Jean Jacques Rousseau,' etc. (1895). There are editions of his novels by Rev. E. Mangin (1811) ; Sir Leslie Stephen (1883); Mrs. Mc Kenna (1901), and Prof. W. L. Phelps of Yale. There are several portraits of Richard son by the painter Joseph Highmore.
Minix DOBSON, Author of 'Life of Richardson,) etc.