But at that time few novelists had the courage to do this, daunted as they were by the absence of the sword and shield of verse, of the vantage-room of the stage.

Then there is the alternative of recounting it by the mouth of one of the actors in, or spectators of, the events--a plan obvious, early, presenting some advantages, still very commonly followed, but always full of little traps and pits of improbability, and peculiarly trying in respect to the character (if he is made to have any) of the narrator himself.

Thirdly, there is the again easy resource of the "document" in its various forms.

Of these, letters and diaries possess some prerogative advantages; and were likely to suggest themselves very particularly at this time when the actual letter and diary (long rather strangely rare in English) had for some generations appeared, and were beginning to be common.

In the first place the information thus obtained looks natural and plausible: and there is a subsidiary advantage--on which Richardson does not draw very much in _Pamela_, but which he employs to the full later--that by varying your correspondents you can get different views of the same event, and first-hand manifestations of extremely different characters.
Its disadvantages, on the other hand, are equally obvious: but there are two or three of them of especial importance.