Clarissa, or the History of A Young Lady
Samuel Richardson author Angus Ross editor
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Penguin Books Ltd
Published:29th Aug '85
Should be back in stock very soon
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.
“Harrowing, unforgiving and extreme . . . A graphic study of the pathologies endemic to a culture that treats women as property. It’s also a passionate celebration of female friendship and of the written word—storytelling as means of power and transcendence.” —Jennifer Egan, Lit Hub
ISBN: 9780140432152
Dimensions: 233mm x 145mm x 60mm
Weight: 1305g
1536 pages