Cover of Clarissa, Or The History of a Young Lady by Samuel Richardson
Samuel Richardson

Clarissa, Or The History of a Young Lady

First published 1932 · Public Domain350 pagesDent
FictionChildrenHistoryEnlightenmentClassics

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About This Book

Samuel Richardson's Clarissa, published in 1747-1748, is among the longest novels in the English language at roughly one million words and one of the most influential works in the development of the English novel. Written entirely in epistolary form, it unfolds through the letters of the virtuous Clarissa Harlowe and the charismatic predator Robert Lovelace. Samuel Johnson called it the first book in the world for its knowledge of the human heart. The novel interrogates patriarchal authority, female autonomy, and the limits of virtue with an intensity that anticipates later realist fiction. It directly influenced Rousseau, Laclos, and the entire tradition of the European novel of sensibility.

Excerpt

I am extremely concerned, my dearest friend, for the disturbances that have happened in your family. I know how it must hurt you to become the subject of the public talk: and yet, upon the present occasion, I cannot help saying that I think there was a kind of fate in it.— Opening of Clarissa, Or The History of a Young Lady

About the Author

Samuel Richardson
1689 – 1761

Samuel Richardson (1689–1761) was an English printer and novelist who pioneered the epistolary form and reshaped European fiction. Apprenticed to a London printer at seventeen, he built a successful business before turning to literature at fifty. His first novel, Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded (1740), caused a sensation with its intimate portrayal of a servant girl resisting her master's advances, told entirely through letters. Its successor, Clarissa (1748), is often regarded as the greatest English novel of the eighteenth century — a tragic, psychologically penetrating work spanning over a million words. Richardson's final novel, Sir Charles Grandison (1753), offered a portrait of the ideal gentleman. His technique of writing "to the moment" influenced writers across Europe, from Rousseau to Goethe, and his exploration of female consciousness opened paths that fiction is still travelling today.

Publication Details

First Published1932
PublisherDent
Pages350
ISBN9780543986320
LanguageEn
CopyrightPublic Domain
Open LibraryView editions