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Clarissa, or the History of a Young Lady
How Clarissa, in resisting parental pressure to marry a loathsome man for his money, falls prey to Lovelace, is raped and dies, is the bare outline of a story that blossomed in all directions under Richardson's hands. He was, self-confessedly and happily, 'a poor pruner.' Written in letters, the novel contains all the urgency and tension of personal communications set down 'to the moment,' compelling our confidence but also our distrust. Its rich ambiguities - our sense of Clarissa's scrupulous virtue tinged with intimations of her capacity for self-deception in matters of sex; the wicked and amusing faces of Lovelace, who must be easily the most charming villain in English literature - give the story extraordinary psychological momentum. In that fatally attracted pair, Richardson created lovers that haunt the imagination as Romeo and Juliet do, or Tristan and Isolde.
526 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1962
22 people want to read
About the author
Samuel Richardson
1,681 books209 followers
Pamela
(1740) and
Clarissa Harlowe
(1748) of English writer Samuel Richardson helped to legitimize the novel as a literary form in English.
An established printer and publisher for most of his life, Richardson wrote his first novel at the age of 51. He is best known for his major 18th-century epistolary novel Sir Charles Grandison (1753).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_...
An established printer and publisher for most of his life, Richardson wrote his first novel at the age of 51. He is best known for his major 18th-century epistolary novel Sir Charles Grandison (1753).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_...
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 15, 2017
2133 pages, consisting of 536 letters (plus conclusion and author's postscript) all cross-referenced - the author must have been a madman. A madman with an impressive filing system.
This is the kind of book that draws you in slowly but completely, with not much happening most of the time. So when something does happen, it's tremendously exciting. My favourite scene from the whole book was (at the end of Volume 2) when there was a fire and she opened her door dressed only in an under-petticoat, her lovely bosom half open, and he almost ravished her, but had a fit of conscience and couldn't do it. Oh, the heaving of her bosom! her ivory skin! her dishevelled hair! It's all still so clear in my mind.
The main characters are all so likeable and distinct in their voices, so even though Clarissa is a pious, beautiful, can-do-no-wrong and universally adored young lady (which makes her the hardest character to like), and she took over 200 pages to die (from lost virtue), and I spent that 200 pages saying "Die already!", and the next 200 pages mostly being about the survivors arguing about the will and will Morden and Lovelace duel or not?, and despite this being a novel of instruction, designed to turn us all to a virtuous Christian life, I still enjoyed this story.
A great conclusion, where everyone good is rewarded with a happy and long life, and everyone who ever did Clarissa any harm meets a nasty end, excepting her family who just lead miserable lives. This about Polly Horton: "In short, as miss grew up under the influences of ... books so light and frothy, with the inflaming additions of music, concerts, operas, plays, assemblies, balls, drums, routs, and the rest of the rabble of amusements of modern life, it is no wonder that, like early fruit, she was soon ripened to the hand of the insidious gatherer." Kids these days, I blame the opera!
The postscript is particularly funny too, as the author defends his story against criticisms, such as:
1. That Clarissa is too perfect and couldn't possibly exist (author: maybe not in town, where ladies play cards and the like, but in the country young ladies of genteel families may compare).
2. Clarissa shouldn't die! Lovelace should reform and marry her. (author: unlikely, not a good example to all the rakes out there to tell them to live a debauched life as long as they reform and marry at some point, and a whole look at the Greek tragedy).
3. Lovelace and his friends should have been infidels (author: if he'd been an unbeliever, she never would have seen any redeeming qualities in him to begin with, so could never have been tricked into running away with him).
So, ponderous and slow but quite enjoyable really.
ETA: How did I not know that this had been made into a series? 1991 with Sean Bean as Lovelace! I am watching it ASAP.
This is the kind of book that draws you in slowly but completely, with not much happening most of the time. So when something does happen, it's tremendously exciting. My favourite scene from the whole book was (at the end of Volume 2) when there was a fire and she opened her door dressed only in an under-petticoat, her lovely bosom half open, and he almost ravished her, but had a fit of conscience and couldn't do it. Oh, the heaving of her bosom! her ivory skin! her dishevelled hair! It's all still so clear in my mind.
The main characters are all so likeable and distinct in their voices, so even though Clarissa is a pious, beautiful, can-do-no-wrong and universally adored young lady (which makes her the hardest character to like), and she took over 200 pages to die (from lost virtue), and I spent that 200 pages saying "Die already!", and the next 200 pages mostly being about the survivors arguing about the will and will Morden and Lovelace duel or not?, and despite this being a novel of instruction, designed to turn us all to a virtuous Christian life, I still enjoyed this story.
A great conclusion, where everyone good is rewarded with a happy and long life, and everyone who ever did Clarissa any harm meets a nasty end, excepting her family who just lead miserable lives. This about Polly Horton: "In short, as miss grew up under the influences of ... books so light and frothy, with the inflaming additions of music, concerts, operas, plays, assemblies, balls, drums, routs, and the rest of the rabble of amusements of modern life, it is no wonder that, like early fruit, she was soon ripened to the hand of the insidious gatherer." Kids these days, I blame the opera!
The postscript is particularly funny too, as the author defends his story against criticisms, such as:
1. That Clarissa is too perfect and couldn't possibly exist (author: maybe not in town, where ladies play cards and the like, but in the country young ladies of genteel families may compare).
2. Clarissa shouldn't die! Lovelace should reform and marry her. (author: unlikely, not a good example to all the rakes out there to tell them to live a debauched life as long as they reform and marry at some point, and a whole look at the Greek tragedy).
3. Lovelace and his friends should have been infidels (author: if he'd been an unbeliever, she never would have seen any redeeming qualities in him to begin with, so could never have been tricked into running away with him).
So, ponderous and slow but quite enjoyable really.
ETA: How did I not know that this had been made into a series? 1991 with Sean Bean as Lovelace! I am watching it ASAP.
Displaying 1 of 1 review