Clarissa Harlowe; or, The History of a Young Lady - Volume 8

Clarissa Harlowe; or the history of a young lady #8

by Samuel Richardson

The tragic story of a heroine whose quest for virtue is continually thwarted by her family.

Genres: Fiction, Classics

245 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1748

About the author

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_...

Reviews

[Marc Chénier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Moving on to the final volume of this novel where I will give a full review.

[Sugarpop · Rating 1 out of 5]

Clarissa keeps dying and everyone else keeps being heinous.

[Nicole · Rating 2 out of 5]

Volume 8 was a lot like Volume 7 - started off ok, reached a level of moderate interest in the "plot," but by about halfway through became another slog through drawn-out drama. I think you could probably read just every other volume (if that even) and come out with a basic grasp of the entire story. Or maybe the first halves of each volume. Either way, I found Volume 8 unnecessarily long. On the plus side, I am almost finished with the entire experience.

[Fazackerly Toast · Rating 3 out of 5]

if only Andrew Davies would adapt this!

[Phaedon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I've come to realise about these volumes, as a I finally near the end, that part of the issue is the slow speed at which the plot inevitably unfolds as a result of the need to read about it from all the different perspectives, in all the different letters. Couple that with the fairly longwinded style that Richardson gives most of the characters, and you really need to devote at least an hour to start feeling like the plot is moving along at all.

Having had the benefit of a long weekend to devote, I did find the story much more engaging, and I think that this volume's first half does offer a bit more action. However, towards the latter half, it does drag a bit and seems to revisit the same themes and events over and over again.