From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Clarissa is also a very unique and beautiful name, used by many
European royals.
Clarissa, or, the History of a Young
Lady is an epistolary novel by Samuel
Richardson, published in 1748. It tells the tragic story of a
heroine whose quest for virtue is continually thwarted by her
family, and is one of the longest novels in the English
language.
Plot
summary
Clarissa Harlowe, the tragic heroine of Clarissa, is the
extremely beautiful and virtuous young lady whose family has become
very wealthy only in recent years and is now eager to become part
of the aristocracy
by acquiring estates and titles through advantageous pairings.
After Clarissa's grandfather's death, she inherits a substantial
sum of money. Her family, noticing that this lady could be their
way to entering aristocratic society, attempt to force her to marry
a rich but highly uncultured and unrefined man (Roger Solmes)
against her will and, more importantly, against her own sense of
virtue.
Desperate to remain free, she is tricked by a young gentleman of
her acquaintance, Lovelace, into escaping with him. Joseph Lehman,
the Harlowes' servant, shouts and makes noise so it may seem like
the family has awoken and they have discovered that Clarissa and
Lovelace are about to run away. Scared of the aftermath, Clarissa
goes with Lovelace. Clarissa remains Lovelace's prisoner for many
months. She is kept at many lodgings, and even a brothel where the women are disguised as
high-status ladies by Lovelace himself. However, she refuses to
marry him on many occasions, longing — unusually for a girl in her
time — to live by herself in peace. She eventually runs away but is
discovered by Lovelace and is tricked into going back to the
brothel.
Lovelace, who means to marry Clarissa in order to avenge the
treatment begot to him by the Harlowe family, wants to possess
Clarissa's body as well as her mind. He believes that if she does
not have her virtue anymore,
she will be forced to marry him on any terms. However, as he is
more and more impressed by Clarissa, he finds it difficult to keep
convincing himself that truly virtuous women do not exist.
The continuous pressure he finds himself under, combined with
his growing passion for Clarissa, drives him to extremes and
eventually he rapes her by drugging her. Through this action, Clarissa
must accept and marry Lovelace. It is suspected that Mrs. Sinclair
(the brothel manager) and the other prostitutes assist Lovelace
during the rape.
The villain, Robert Lovelace,
abducting Clarissa Harlowe
However, Lovelace's action backfires and Clarissa is even more
adamant on not marrying a vile and corrupt individual like
Lovelace. Eventually, Clarissa manages to escape from the brothel,
but becomes dangerously ill due to the mental duress she has been
under for so many months at the hands of "the vile Lovelace."
Clarissa is sheltered by the kind but poor Smiths and during her
sickness she gains another worshipper - John Belford, another libertine who happens to be
Lovelace's best friend. Belford is amazed at the way Clarissa
handles her approaching death and laments over what Lovelace has
done. In one of the many letters sent to Lovelace he writes that
"if the divine Clarissa asks me to slit thy throat, Lovelace, I
shall do it in an instance."
Eventually, surrounded by strangers and Col. Morden, Clarissa
dies in the full consciousness of her own virtue, and trusting in a
better life after death.
Belford becomes the individual who manages Clarissa's will and
ensures that all her articles and money go into the hands of the
individuals she desires should receive them after her death.
Lovelace seems to have moved on but Belford sends him Clarissa's
will. He is shattered when he reads it and can live no longer. Col.
Morden has gone back to Italy and he knows that there is only one
way to atone for his sins. Lovelace asks Morden for a duel
(although not directly) and they meet somewhere in Italy. Lovelace
fights Morden and keeps on getting injured. He pretends to be not
injured and goes after Morden multiple times - each time receiving
another deadly blow. Eventually, Morden realizes that he has been
injured very badly and might die. The duel ends, Morden leaves and
Lovelace is taken to his lodgings. The doctor is unable to do
anything and Lovelace dies a day afterwards. But, before dying, he
says this: "LET THIS EXPIATE!"
Clarissa's relatives finally realise the misery they have
caused, but discover that they are too late and Clarissa has
already died. The book ends with an account of the fate of the
other characters.
Characters
- Miss Clarissa Harlowe: title
character
- James Harlowe, Sr.: Clarissa's father
- Lady Charlotte Harlowe: Clarissa's mother
- James Harlowe, Jr.: Clarissa's brother, bitter enemy of Robert
Lovelace's
- Miss Arabella Harlowe: Clarissa's older sister
- John Harlowe: Clarissa's uncle (her father's elder
brother)
- Antony Harlowe: Clarissa's uncle (her father's younger
brother)
- Roger Solmes: a wealthy man whom Clarissa's parents wish her to
marry
- Mrs. Hervey: Clarissa's mother (Lady Charlotte Harlowe)'s
half-sister
- Dolly Hervey: daughter of Mrs. Hervey
- Mrs. Norton: Clarissa's nurse, an unhappy widow
- Colonel Morden: a man of fortune, closely related to the
Harlowe family
- Miss Howe: Clarissa's best friend and companion
- Mrs. Howe: the mother of Miss Howe
- Mr. Hickman: Miss Howe's suitor
- Dr. Lewin: one of Clarissa's educators, a divine of great piety
and learning
- Dr. H: a physician
- Mr. Elias Brand: young clergyman
- Robert Lovelace: the villain and pursuer of Clarissa
- John Belford: a close friend of Mr. Lovelace
- Lord M.: Mr. Lovelace's uncle
- Lady Sarah Sadleir: half-sister of Lord M., widow, lady of
honour and fortune
- Lady Betty Lawrance: half-sister of Lord M., widow, lady of
honour and fortune
- Miss Charlotte: niece of Lord M., maiden lady of character
- Patty Montague: niece of Lord M., maiden lady of character
- Richard Mowbray: libertine, gentleman, companions of Mr.
Lovelace
- Thomas Doleman: libertine, gentleman, companions of Mr.
Lovelace
- James Tourville: libertine, gentleman, companions of Mr.
Lovelace
- Thomas Belton: libertine, gentleman, companions of Mr.
Lovelace
- Capt. Tomlinson: the assume named of a pander that aids Mr.
Lovelace
- Mrs. Moore: a widowed gentlewoman, keeping a lodging-house at
Hampstead
- Miss Rawlins: a notable young gentlewoman in Hampstead
- Mrs. Bevis: a lively widow in Hampstead
- Mrs. Sinclair: the pretended name of a private brothel keeper
in London
- Sally Martin: assistant of, and partner with, Mrs.
Sinclair
- Polly Horton: assistant of, and partner with, Mrs.
Sinclair
- Joseph Leman: servant
- William Summers: servant
- Hannan Burton: servant
- Betty Barnes: servant
- Dorcas Wykes: servant
Television adaptations
The BBC adapted the novel as a
television series in 1991, starring Sean Bean and Saskia Wickham.
See also
Bibliography
Most entries below from the Richardson
Bibliography by John A. Dussinger
- John Carroll, "Lovelace as Tragic Hero," University of
Toronto Quarterly 42 (1972): 14-25.
- Anthony Winner, "Richardson's Lovelace: Character and
Prediction," Texas Studies in Literature and Language 14
(1972): 53-75.
- Jonathan Loesberg, "Allegory and Narrative in Clarissa," Novel
15 (Fall 1981): 39-59.
- Leo Braudy, "Penetration and Impenetrability in Clarissa," in
New Aspects of the Eighteenth Century: Essays from the English
Institute, ed. Philip Harth (New York: Columbia Univ. Press,
1974).
- John Traugott, "Molesting Clarissa," Novel 15 (1982):
163-70.
- Sue Warrick Doederlein, "Clarissa in the Hands of the Critics,"
Eighteenth-Century Studies 16 (1983): 401-14.
- Terry Castle, "Lovelace's Dream," Studies in
Eighteenth-Century Culture 13 (1984): 29-42.
- Sarah Fielding, Remarks on 'Clarissa', introduction by
Peter Sabor (Augustan Reprint Society, 231-32). Facsimile reprint
1749 (Los Angeles: William Andrews Clark Memorial Library,
1985).
- Florian Stuber, "On Fathers and Authority in 'Clarissa'," 25
(Summer 1985): 557-74.
- Donald R. Wehrs, "Irony, Storytelling and the Conflict of
Interpretation in Clarissa, ELH 53 (1986): 759-78.
- Margaret Anne Doody, "Disguise and Personality in Richardson's
Clarissa," Eighteenth-Century Life n.s. 12, no. 2 (1988):
18-39.
- Jonathan Lamb, "The Fragmentation of Originals and Clarissa,"
SEL 28 (1988): 443-59.
- Raymond Stephanson, "Richardson's 'Nerves': The Philosophy of
Sensibility in 'Clarissa'," Journal of the History of
Ideas 49 (1988): 267-85.
- Peter Hynes, "Curses, Oaths, and Narrative in Richardson's
'Clarissa'," ELH 56 (1989): 311-26.
- Brenda Bean, "Sight and Self-Disclosure: Richardson's Revision
of Swift's 'The Lady's Dressing Room,'" Eighteenth-Century
Life 14 (1990): 1-23.
- Thomas O. Beebee, "Clarissa" on the Continent: Translation
and Seduction (University Park: Pennsylvania State Univ.,
1990).
- Jocelyn Harris, "Protean Lovelace," Eighteenth-Century
Fiction 2 (1990): 327-46.
- Raymond F. Hilliard, "Clarissa and Ritual Cannibalism,"
PMLA 105 (1990): 1083-97.
- Nicholas Hudson, "Arts of Seduction and the Rhetoric of
Clarissa," Modern Language Quarterly 51 (1990):
25-43.
- Helen M. Ostovich, "'Our Views Must Now Be Different':
Imprisonment and Friendship in 'Clarissa'," Modern Language
Quarterly 52 (1991): 153-69.
- Tom Keymer, Richardson's "Clarissa" and the
Eighteenth-Century Reader (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press,
1992). Probably the most important book-length study of Richardson
after the first wave of Kinkead-Weakes, Doody, Flynn, and others in
the 1970s and 1980s.
- David C. Hensley, "Thomas Edwards and the Dialectics of
Clarissa's Death Scene," Eighteenth-Century Life 16, no. 3
(1992): 130-52.
- Lois A. Chaber, "A 'Fatal Attraction'? The BBC and Clarissa,"
Eighteenth-Century Fiction 4 (April 1992): 257-63.
- Mildred Sarah Greene, "The French Clarissa," in Man and
Nature: Proceedings of the Canadian Society for Eighteenth-Century
Studies, ed. Christa Fell and James Leith (Edmonton: Academic
Printing & Publishing, 1992), pp. 89-98.
- Elizabeth W. Harries, "Fragments and Mastery: Dora and
Clarissa," Eighteenth-Century Fiction 5 (April 1993):
217-38.
- Richard Hannaford, "Playing Her Dead Hand: Clarissa's
Posthumous Letters," Texas Studies in Literature and
Language 35 (Spring 1993): 79-102.
- Lois E. Bueler, Clarissa's Plots (Newark, DE:
Associated Univ. Presses, 1994).
- Tom Keymer, "Clarissa's Death, Clarissa's Sale, and the Text of
the Second Edition," Review of English Studies 45 (Aug.
1994): 389-96.
- Martha J. Koehler, "Epistolary Closure and Triangular Return in
Richardson's 'Clarissa'," Journal of Narrative Technique
24 (Fall 1994): 153-72.
- Margaret Anne Doody, "Heliodorus Rewritten: Samuel Richardson's
'Clarissa' and Frances Burney's 'Wanderer'," in The Search for
the Ancient Novel, ed. James Tatum (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins
Univ. Press, 1994), pp. 117-31.
- Joy Kyunghae Lee, "The Commodification of Virtue: Chastity and
the Virginal Body in Richardson's 'Clarissa'," The Eighteenth
Century: Theory and Interpretation 36 (Spring 1995):
38-54.
- Mary Vermillion, "Clarissa and the Marriage Act,"
Eighteenth-Century Fiction 10 (1997): 395-412.
- Daniel P. Gunn, "Is Clarissa Bourgois Art?"
Eighteenth-Century Fiction 10 (Oct. 1997): 1-14.
- Brian McCrea, "Clarissa's Pregnancy and the Fate of Patriarchal
Power," Eighteenth-Century Fiction 9 (Jan. 1997):
125-48.
- Mary Patricia Martin, "Reading Reform in Richardson's
'Clarissa' and the Tactics of Sentiment," SEL 37 (Summer
1997): 595-614.
- Paul Gordon Scott, "Disinterested Selves: Clarissa and the
Tactics of Sentiment," ELH 64 (1997): 473-502.
- Donnalee Frega, Speaking in Hunger: Gender, Discourse, and
Consumption in "Clarissa" (Columbia, SC: Univ. of South
Carolina Press, 1998).
- Laura Hinton, "The Heroine's Subjection: Clarissa,
Sadomasochism, and Natural Law," Eighteenth-Century
Studies 32 (Spring 1999): 293-308.
- Murray L. Brown, "Authorship and Generic Exploitation: Why
Lovelace Must Fear Clarissa," SNNTS 30 (Summer 1998):
246-59.
- Derek Taylor, "Clarissa Harlowe, Mary Astell, and Elizabeth
Carter: John Norris of Bemerton's Female 'Descendants,'"
Eighteenth-Century Fiction 12 (Oct. 1999): 19-38.
- Astrid Krake, How art produces art: Samuel Richardsons
Clarissa im Spiegel ihrer deutschen Übersetzungen. Frankfurt:
Peter Lang, 2000.
- Astrid Krake, "He could go no farther: The Rape of Clarissa in
18th-Century Translations", in La traduction du discours
amoureux (1660-1830) eds. Annie Cointre, Florence
Lautel-Ribstein, Annie Rivara, Metz, CETT, 2006.
External
links
- A version currently in print ISBN 0140432159
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