# Clarissa; or, The History of a Young Lady

Clarissa; or, The History of a Young Lady: Comprehending the Most Important Concerns of Private Life. And Particularly Shewing, the Distresses that May Attend the Misconduct Both of Parents and Children, In Relation to Marriage is an epistolary novel by English writer Samuel Richardson, published in 1748. The novel tells the tragic story of a young woman, Clarissa Harlowe, whose quest for virtue is continually thwarted by her family. The Harlowes are a recently wealthy family whose preoccupation with increasing their standing in society leads to obsessive control of their daughter, Clarissa. It is considered one of the longest novels in the English language (based on estimated word count). It is generally regarded as Richardson's masterpiece.
In 2015, the BBC ranked Clarissa 14th on its list of the 100 greatest British novels. In 2013 The Guardian included Clarissa among the 100 best novels written in English.

## Plot summary

Robert Lovelace, a wealthy "libertine" and heir to a substantial estate, begins to court Arabella, Clarissa's older sister. However, she rejects him because she feels slighted by his more ardent interest in her parents' approval than in her. Lovelace quickly moves on from Arabella to Clarissa, much to the displeasure of Arabella and their brother James. Clarissa, a virtuous young lady, insists that she dislikes and distrusts the notorious Lovelace, but Arabella grows jealous of Lovelace's interest in the younger girl. James, also, dislikes Lovelace greatly because of a duel the two had once fought. These feelings combine with resentment that their grandfather had left Clarissa a piece of land and lead the siblings to be aggressive to Clarissa. The entire Harlowe family is in favour of her marrying Roger Solmes; however, Clarissa finds Solmes to be unpleasant company and does not wish to marry him, either. This makes her family suspicious of her supposed dislike of Lovelace and they begin to disbelieve her.
The Harlowes begin restricting Clarissa's contact with the outside world by forbidding her to see Lovelace. Eventually they forbid her to either leave her room or send letters to her friend, Anna Howe, until Clarissa apologises and agrees to marry Solmes. Trapped and desperate to regain her freedom, Clarissa continues to communicate with Anna secretly and begins a correspondence with Lovelace, while trying to convince her parents not to force her to marry Solmes. Neither Clarissa nor her parents will concede. They see her protests as stubborn disobedience and communication between parents and daughter breaks down.
Meanwhile, through their clandestine correspondence, Lovelace pressures Clarissa into agreeing to elope with him. He has come to view her famed virtuousness as a challenge for him to conquer, bragging to his best friend John Belford that he intends to put it to "trial". He is also delighted by the idea of spiting the Harlowes for their haughty rejection of his suit for Clarissa's hand.
Increasingly desperate, Clarissa reluctantly agrees to elope with Lovelace, but a few days before the agreed-upon date, she changes her mind. She writes to him, reneging on the plan. However, Lovelace deliberately leaves the letter untouched in its hiding place. Clarissa is distressed to discover that he did not get her message. She goes in person, at the agreed night-time hour of elopement, to tell him of her reversal of decision. Lovelace forcefully compels her towards his carriage, and she at first resists. However, unbeknownst to Clarissa, Lovelace has arranged for his servant, Joseph Leman, to make noises mimicking a disturbance in the Harlowe household. Frightened by the repercussions of being seen to be eloping with the enemy, Clarissa stops resisting Lovelace, and allows herself to be carried off by him to his lodgings.
Now in Lovelace's power, Clarissa becomes increasingly angry and afraid of his intentions. She suspects, rightly, that he wishes to seduce rather than to wed her, although he continues to claim that he loves her, often talking of marrying her, but never actually asking her to do so. He begins a sustained campaign of seduction, using by turns his charm to win her over, and implied menaces to frighten her into submission. But Clarissa resists his manipulative advances, repeatedly urging him to set her at liberty or deliver her into the respectable circles of his relations. She tries to reconcile with her family, but they refuse to listen or forgive her because of the perceived betrayal of her elopement, and Clarissa is deeply shocked by her father invoking a curse upon her, that her disobedience will lead her to ruin in this world and punishment in the next.
Lovelace keeps Clarissa his prisoner for many months. She is held at several lodgings, including unknowingly a brothel, where the women are disguised as high-class ladies by Lovelace so as to deceive Clarissa into believing she is in respectable and safe hands. He introduces her to some of his rakehell friends, including John Belford, who becomes a genuine admirer of Clarissa's purity, beauty and intelligence. Belford urges Lovelace to give up his wicked designs against Clarissa and marry her, but Lovelace simply mocks him.
Lovelace continues his "trial" against Clarissa. Although he puts her under increasing pressure to submit to him, Clarissa does not waver. Under the pretense of saving her from a fire, Lovelace at last gains entry to Clarissa's bedroom but she thwarts his attempted assault with vigorous resistance. She promises, under threat of rape, to forgive and marry him. However, she considers this promise made under duress as void; soon after she makes her first successful escape from Lovelace, concealing herself in lodgings in Hampstead.
Enraged by Clarissa's flight, Lovelace vows to seek revenge. He hunts her down to the lodgings where she is hiding and rents all the rooms around her, effectively trapping her. He hires people to impersonate his own respectable family members to gain her trust. During this time he intercepts a letter to Clarissa from Anna Howe warning her of true extent of his deception and roguery. He commits forgery to put an end to the communication between them.
Eventually, he persuades Clarissa to accompany his imposter-relatives out in a carriage and thus carries her back to the disguised brothel. There, with the assistance of the prostitutes and brothel madam, he first drugs and then rapes her.
After the rape, Clarissa suffers a loss of sanity for several days, presumably brought on by her extreme distress as well as the dose of opiates administered to her. She writes a series of incoherent "mad letters" and verses, blaming herself and him for what has occurred, and begging to be admitted to an asylum to die in peace. (Her temporary insanity is creatively represented by the use of scattered typography.)
When Clarissa recovers her senses, Lovelace anticipates she will finally capitulate to either living with him as his mistress, or consenting to marry him. However, he soon realises that he has failed to "subdue" her; instead she is utterly repulsed by him, refusing his now-genuine offers of marriage despite her precarious situation as a fallen woman. She accuses him of unlawfully detaining her and insists that he set her free. He continues to claim that the impersonators really were his family members and that his crime was simply one of desperate passion. He tries to convince her to marry him, alternating between threats and professions of love. She steadfastly resists and attempts several more escapes.
Lovelace is forced to concede that, despite the rape, Clarissa's virtue remains untarnished, but he begins to convince himself that the "trial" was not properly conducted. Since Clarissa was drugged at the time, she could neither consent nor refuse. He decides to orchestrate a second rape, this time without the aid of stupefying drugs. Pretending to be angered by the discovery that she has bribed a servant to help her escape, Lovelace begins to menace Clarissa, intending to escalate the confrontation to physical violence and then rape, but she threatens to kill herself with a pen-knife should he proceed. Utterly confounded by her righteous indignation and terrified by her willingness to die for her virtue, Lovelace retreats.
More intent than ever to make Clarissa his wife, Lovelace is called away to attend his dying uncle from whom he is expecting to inherit an Earldom. He orders the prostitutes to keep Clarissa confined but well-treated until he returns. Clarissa escapes; however, the brothel madam sends bailiffs to find her, and has her jailed for a few days for unpaid bills. Clarissa becomes wretched in these sordid surroundings, musing that the first part of her father's curse had been fulfilled. John Belford discovers her whereabouts, and bails Clarissa from prison. She finds lodgings with a shopkeeper and his wife. Corresponding with Lovelace's real family, she discovers for herself the true extent of his deception. She lives in constant fear of being found by him again, as he continues to send her marriage offers through his friend, John Belford, as well as through his own family members. Clarissa is determined not to accept. She becomes dangerously ill from the stress, rarely eating, convinced that she will die soon.
Her illness progresses. She and Belford become correspondents. She appoints him executor of her will as she puts all of her affairs in order to the alarm of the people around her. Belford is amazed at the way Clarissa handles her approaching death and laments what Lovelace has done. In one of the many letters sent to Lovelace, he writes, "if the divine Clarissa asks me to slit thy throat, Lovelace, I shall do it in an instance".
Her father's curse still weighing heavily upon her – that she will be punished in the next world – Clarissa reaches out via letter to petition her release from it. Her father does so. Eventually, surrounded by strangers and her cousin, Col. Morden, Clarissa dies in the full consciousness of her virtue and trusting in a better life after death. Belford manages Clarissa's will and ensures that all her articles and money go into the hands of the individuals she desires should receive them. In her will, she asks that her body not be medically examined, leaving open to inference the possibility of her having been pregnant by Lovelace.
Lovelace departs for Europe and continues to correspond with Belford. Lovelace learns that Col. Morden has suggested he might seek Lovelace and demand satisfaction on behalf of his cousin. He responds that he is not able to accept threats against himself and arranges an encounter with Col. Morden. They meet in Trent and arrange a duel. Morden is slightly injured in the duel, but Lovelace dies of his injuries the following day. Before dying he says "let this expiate!"
Clarissa's relatives finally realise they have been wrong but it comes too late. They discover Clarissa has already died. The story ends with an account of the fate of the other characters.

## Characters

Major characters:
* Miss Clarissa Harlowe: The title character of the novel. Clarissa is a young and virtuous woman who ends up falling victim to Robert Lovelace after he convinces her to run away with him and later rapes her. Feeling as though she has entirely lost the will to live after losing her virtue, Clarissa prepares herself for death.
* Robert Lovelace: The villain of the story and pursuer of Clarissa. Mr. Lovelace is seen as a vile and selfish character who refuses to stop lusting after Clarissa until he gets what he wants.
* Anne Howe: Clarissa's best friend to whom she continuously writes throughout the course of the story. Anne serves as Clarissa's confidant as the story progresses.
* John Belford: A close friend of Mr. Lovelace whom he writes to during the course of the story. However, as the story progresses, he slowly begins to side with Clarissa instead of Mr. Lovelace.
Secondary characters:
* James Harlowe Sr.: Clarissa's father
* Lady Charlotte Harlowe: Clarissa's mother
* James Harlowe Jr.: Clarissa's brother, bitter enemy of Robert Lovelace.
* 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 aunt (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
* 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: A young clergyman
* 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, companion of Mr. Lovelace
* Thomas Doleman: Libertine, gentleman, companion of Mr. Lovelace
* James Tourville: Libertine, gentleman, companion of Mr. Lovelace
* Thomas Belton: Libertine, gentleman, companion of Mr. Lovelace
* Capt. Tomlinson: The assumed 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; pretends to be Lady Betty
* Sally Martin: Assistant of, and partner with, Mrs. Sinclair
* Polly Horton: Assistant of, and partner with, Mrs. Sinclair
* Joseph Leman: Servant
* William Summers: Servant
* Hannah Burton: Servant
* Betty Barnes: Servant
* Dorcas Wykes: Servant

## Response

Clarissa is generally regarded by critics to be among the masterpieces of eighteenth-century European literature. Influential critic Harold Bloom cited it as one of his favourite novels that he "tend[ed] to re-read every year or so". The novel was well-received as it was being released. However, many readers pressured Richardson for a happy ending with a wedding between Clarissa and Lovelace. At the novel's end, many readers were upset, and some even wrote alternative endings for the story with a happier conclusion. Some of the most well-known ones included happier alternative endings written by two sisters Lady Bradshaigh and Lady Echlin. Richardson felt that the story's morals and messages of the story failed to reach his audience properly. As such, in later editions of the novel, he attempted to make Clarissa's character appear purer while also Lovelace's character became more sinister in hopes of making his audience better understand his intentions in writing the novel.
The pioneering American nurse Clara Barton's full name was Clarissa Harlowe Barton, after the heroine of Richardson's novel.

## Radio and television adaptations

The BBC adapted the novel as a television series in 1991, starring Sean Bean, Saskia Wickham, and Sean Pertwee.
BBC Radio 4 released a radio adaptation in March and April 2010, starring Richard Armitage and Zoe Waites.