Vertue Rewarded

This title was first published in 1693 and has never been reprinted until now, almost 300 years since the first publication. An intriguing feature of the work is that its author is unknown and likely to remain so. Only two copies appear to have survived, one of which is in the Bodleian Library, the other in the British Museum. The present text is taken from the British Museum copy. In his Introduction, Hubert McDermott compares Vertue Rewarded with other contemporary works of fiction and sees it as a prototype for later developments in English passionate romance. More particularly, he makes significant comparisons between Vertue Rewarded and Samuel Richardson's Pamela and suggests that Richardson was familiar with the earlier work and heavily influenced by it. This work can lay claim to being the first Irish novel ever published, certainly the earliest that is extant, and, as such, will be of interest to all students of literature in the English language. The Princess Grace Irish Library No. 7.