ONE of the early editors of the Rambler, anonymously unkind, says of the essay on Woman, contributed by Richardson, that “although mean and hackneyed in style and sentiment, it was the only paper which had a great sale during the publication of the Rambler in its original form.” Between this criticism and the judgment of the London public in the eighteenth century, let twentieth-century readers decide. Richardson, who disputes with Fielding the title of “Inventor of the Modern Novel,” was born in Derbyshire, England, in 1689. In 1706 he began life as an apprentice in a London printing office. “Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded” was published in three volumes in 1741 and 1742. It was successful, and he followed it by “Clarissa Harlowe” and “The History of Sir Charles Grandison.” He died at London, July 4th, 1761. It was by “Pamela” that Fielding was drawn into novel writing, as he began “Joseph Andrews” as a parody on it.