Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge
If Pamela had you rolling your eyes a little too hard, you're in good company: literary great (and Richardson contemporary) Henry Fielding almost immediately wrote a parody of Pamela called Shamela, which claims to expose Pamela's "matchless arts." (Source)
Fielding wasn't the only one to get in on the action. In 1741, Eliza Haywood wrote Anti-Pamela, with the nasty subtitle of "Feign'd Innocence Detected." Guess we know where Haywood stands on everyone's favorite prude Pamela. (Source)
Richardson said that Pamela was based on a true story. In 1741, a book called Memoirs of Lady H claimed that the original Pamela was Hannah Sturges, the daughter of a coachman, who married Sir Arthur Hesilrige. Truth or fiction? None of them are talking. (Source)