An Apology for the Life of Mrs. Shamela Andrews

Written as a short comic novel told in letters, this satire lampoons a popular sentimental novel of its day about a virtuous servant girl who holds out against her wealthy master. Here the narrator is Shamela Andrews, a scheming young woman in the English countryside who sees her own prospects very differently. In her letters to her mother, she lays out how she intends to win over the young squire, Booby, and turn his attentions to her own advantage. Her frank, self-serving confessions expose the gap between what she says and what she actually does, and the joke rests on how plainly she shows it.