Clarissa Clarissa

Clarissa

    • 3.0 • 2 Ratings

Publisher Description

Synopsis

Richardson’s masterpiece remains one of the great novels of the world’s literature. Clarissa is proposed as an example to all young women, she accomplishes the all but impossible feat of remaining an attractive pattern of virtue. There is a true nobleness, a natural dignity in Clarissa, a power of steadfast suffering, a true delicacy, an ardour of affection. Lovelace, undoubtedly, is the forerunner of a long series of romantic heroes. His is a divided soul, a study in the subtle degradation wrought by desire; he is, at the same time, more than a mere human personage—a power of darkness, the prince of lies. The family tragedy at the beginning seizes upon our emotions like the slow, oppressive, inevitable approach of a storm; the circle of fate grows narrower and narrower as it closes round the unprotected Clarissa; and the chain of circumstance and event is woven with an extraordinary strength of dramatic cohesion. No sooner has Clarissa fallen into Lovelace’s power, than the crushing of her will and pride in a hopeless struggle is impressed upon us with the relentless, terrible determination of religious enthusiasm…


Contemporary Reviews

Gentleman’s Magazine, December 1748 — You put to me the fashionable question, Have you read Clarissa? Yes, in troth, have I; though afraid at first! The length, Frank, the length was thrown in my way; and objected by numbers who, by the by, had seen only the advertisement of seven volumes. But however long, however interrupted (purposely) when I came to the three last, I was so eager to get to the conclusion, that they kept me up till 4 or 5, once till 7 o’clock in the morning, wide awake all the while.


The Gentleman’s Magazine, August 1749Clarissa is a history, where the events of her life follow each other in an uninterrupted succession. The reader is allowed no interval of rest; but urged on from one event to another, his curiosity is perpetually both excited and gratified.


Sir Walter Scott, 1823 — It is probable, after all, that the prolixity of Richardson, which, to our giddy-paced times, is the greatest fault of his writing, was not such an objection to his contemporaries. But a modern reader may be permitted to wish that Clarissa had been a good deal abridged at the beginning, and Sir Charles Grandison at the end; that the last two volumes of Pamela had been absolutely cancelled, and the second much compressed. 


The Author

Samuel Richardson was born in Derbyshire, in the year 1689. Having sustained severe losses in trade, the elder Richardson was unable to give his son Samuel more than a very ordinary education. Richardson was twice married; first to Allington Wilde, his master's daughter, and after her death, in 1731, to Elizabeth Leake. He is best known for his three epistolary novels: Pamela: Or, Virtue Rewarded (1740), Clarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady (1748) and The History of Sir Charles Grandison (1753).

GENRE
Fiction & Literature
RELEASED
1748
1 March
LANGUAGE
EN
English
LENGTH
4,043
Pages
PUBLISHER
Silver Fork Novels
SELLER
Silver Fork Novels
SIZE
3.1
MB

More Books Like This

Clarissa, or the History of A Young Lady Clarissa, or the History of A Young Lady
2004
Clarissa Harlowe or the History of a Young Lady, the longest novel in the English language, all 9 volumes in a single file Clarissa Harlowe or the History of a Young Lady, the longest novel in the English language, all 9 volumes in a single file
2009
Clarissa Harlowe and Pamela Clarissa Harlowe and Pamela
2010
The Sylph (Complete) The Sylph (Complete)
2012
Dangerous Liaisons Dangerous Liaisons
2015
D'Arcy D'Arcy
2012

More Books by Samuel Richardson

250 Greatest Books Collection 250 Greatest Books Collection
2023
100 Greatest Books 100 Greatest Books
2018
Clarissa Harlowe; Or the History of a Young Lady, Vol. 1 Clarissa Harlowe; Or the History of a Young Lady, Vol. 1
1761
Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded
1740
Clarissa Harlowe; Or the History of a Young Lady, Vol. 2 Clarissa Harlowe; Or the History of a Young Lady, Vol. 2
1761
Clarissa Harlowe; Or the History of a Young Lady, Vol. 3 Clarissa Harlowe; Or the History of a Young Lady, Vol. 3
1761

Customers Also Bought

The Italian The Italian
1797
The Mysteries of Udolpho The Mysteries of Udolpho
1794
The Romance of the Forest The Romance of the Forest
1791
Cranford Cranford
1853
Ruth Ruth
1853
The Glimpses of the Moon The Glimpses of the Moon
1922