Clarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady

By Samuel Richardson

Book Overview

"Oh thou savage-hearted monster What work hast thou made in one guilty hour, for a whole age of repentance "

Pressured by her unscrupulous family to marry a wealthy man she detests, the young Clarissa Harlowe is tricked into fleeing with the witty and debonair Robert Lovelace and places herself under his protection. Lovelace, however, proves himself to be an untrustworthy rake whose vague promises of marriage are accompanied by unwelcome and increasingly brutal sexual advances. And yet, Clarissa finds his charm alluring, her scrupulous sense of virtue tinged with unconfessed desire. Told through a complex series of interweaving letters, Clarissa is a richly ambiguous study of a fatally attracted couple and a work of astonishing power and immediacy. A huge success when it first appeared in 1747, and translated into French and German, it remains one of the greatest of all European novels.

In his introduction, Angus Ross examines characterization, the epistolary style, the role of the family and the position of women in Clarissa. This edition also includes a chronology, suggestions for further reading, tables of letters, notes, a glossary and an appendix on the music for the "Ode to Wisdom."

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140432159
• ISBN13: 9780140432152
• Release Date: February 1986
• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Length: 1536 Pages
• Weight: 2.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 2.5" x 5.7" x 9.2"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Read the UNABRIDGED Clarissa!

The UNABRIDGED Clarissa (Penguin ed.) is a powerful, moving eighteenth-century English masterpiece, the first great psychological novel. Its length may seem daunting and it does take at least six weeks to read, but you will be rewarded by finding yourself immersed in the minds of Clarissa and Lovelace. You will feel as though you are living in their world, facing their moral dilemmas, deciding on courses of action, predicting consequences. However, if you accidentally pick up the Sherburn ABRIDGEMENT of Clarissa, you will NOT be able to savor Richardson's famous "writing to the moment." If you doubt me, take a look at Mary Anne Doody and Florian Stuber's article, "Clarissa Censored," in the journal Modern Language Studies (1988). The abridgement is a travesty of Richardson's greatest novel.

great story to get into....

A wonderful book! Using letters to tell the story was fascinating and kept my interest piqued. I became so engrossed over time, I felt I was living the story...The characters were very well defined in description and in their writing style. The length of the book was a bonus to keep me there. This book was a wonderfully emotional experience for me. I would recommend it to anyone who loves to read the classics of this period.

A powerful experience that leaves the reader breathless.

On first seeing this novel one is intially amazed at its length. This may be disconcerting at first, but it undoubtedly adds to the richness of the work;which is full of conflict, drama, beautifully written (and convincing dialogue)and of course well delineated characters. The characters are in fact so well delineated they eventually assume a life of their own, and seem to act out their roles almost independant of their creator. This is a splendid example of how effective the epistolary form could be, in moments of tension and inner conflict. Richardson probes his characters minds until the reader knows them inside out. A powerful and tragic work it deeply influenced succsessive authors well into the 19th century, and can still do so today