Book 1

Clarissa - Volume 1

by Samuel Richardson

Published 27 October 2015

Book 1

Clarissa

by Samuel Richardson

Published 2 January 1961
How Clarissa, in resisting parental pressure to marry a loathsome man for his money, falls prety 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 Juleit do, or Tristan and Osolde.

Book 2

Clarissa - Volume 2

by Samuel Richardson

Published 3 August 2017

Book 3

Clarissa Volume 3

by Samuel Richardson

Published 12 September 2013