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jenly's review against another edition
I started reading this as part of a challenge to read it over the year but honestly, this book is boring as hell.
david_r_grigg's review against another edition
5.0
Finished! One of the longest works of fiction in the English language, all written in the form of letters. But it’s well worth your time.
readingduckling's review against another edition
I started reading this book, because of booktok. I thought it sounded really interesting to read, and I still think if you are in the right headspace and stable mental health wise you should try to read it.
But as someone with depression and anxiety it's not the best book. It made me experience panic attacks and made my overall mental health worse when I read the book.
Maybe I'll revisit this book when my mental health gets better.
But as someone with depression and anxiety it's not the best book. It made me experience panic attacks and made my overall mental health worse when I read the book.
Maybe I'll revisit this book when my mental health gets better.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, and Misogyny
timhering's review against another edition
Not feeling it right now. May try again in the future.
wille44's review against another edition
1.5
The further into the past you go to read something, the more you are required to suspend your current notion of a novel and its contemporary structure and purpose, and a work such as Clarissa demands a tremendous amount of contextualization to be enjoyed or merely appreciated by a modern reader. Richardson's magnum opus stands as a landmark in the history of the novel, written at a time when the novel itself was considered a base form of entertainment, and was the vanguard of popularizing and legitimizing the art form as worthy of close reading to discern truth, the progenitor of the novel as a vehicle of saying something important about people and society.
This message Richardson imparts is surprisingly evergreen, which is that an overexertion of familial control over a woman will make her life worse, not better, and that the concept (popular in the 1700s) that a licentious man could be "cured" of his promiscuity by marriage to a good woman was a ridiculous one. The novel is epistolary in form, a product of its time that is an awkward way to construct a narrative, effective in delivering heartfelt internal feelings and thoughts but useless when any action or corporeal movement must take place.
Nonetheless, Richardson's letters are well written, his usage of subtext, delivering the real meat of the characters personalities through what they do not say, is the highlight of the entire novel, he crafts a deeply flawed, deeply wronged main character, Clarissa, but unfortunately her suitor/captor is something of a mustache twirling villain throughout. The novel is a scathing look at the restrictions placed on women of the era as far as marriage and courtship go, they are herded and sold off like cattle, and the consistent wrongs done to Clarissa, throughout what is a very long book, grow deeply wearying to continue reading about.
Additionally, due in large part to the epistolary format but also to Richardson's deep love of circling the same topics to drive his point home, the characters go back and forth discussing the same thing for hundreds of pages at a time. To historically contextualize, the book was written in installments and was massively popular, Richardson had an audience, and a message he intended to deliver, and spared no words to make sure he richly hammered home his grievances and warnings, usually through events being addressed over and over again. At the time this was a beloved method, as it gave readers the maximum amount of time with these characters and their philosophical and moral struggles, the likes of which they had not really seen in novel form prior to Richardson's output.
All that being said, today this is no longer a bold new approach, nor the way we read novels any more. As such Clarissa extends outward for an interminable amount of time, and even if one enjoys the yearnings and sufferings and remonstrations within, even the staunchest enjoyer will tire long before the book concludes. Clarissa is more interesting as a historical artifact than a novel, and is worth reading about, but not worth reading in its entirety.
This message Richardson imparts is surprisingly evergreen, which is that an overexertion of familial control over a woman will make her life worse, not better, and that the concept (popular in the 1700s) that a licentious man could be "cured" of his promiscuity by marriage to a good woman was a ridiculous one. The novel is epistolary in form, a product of its time that is an awkward way to construct a narrative, effective in delivering heartfelt internal feelings and thoughts but useless when any action or corporeal movement must take place.
Nonetheless, Richardson's letters are well written, his usage of subtext, delivering the real meat of the characters personalities through what they do not say, is the highlight of the entire novel, he crafts a deeply flawed, deeply wronged main character, Clarissa, but unfortunately her suitor/captor is something of a mustache twirling villain throughout. The novel is a scathing look at the restrictions placed on women of the era as far as marriage and courtship go, they are herded and sold off like cattle, and the consistent wrongs done to Clarissa, throughout what is a very long book, grow deeply wearying to continue reading about.
Additionally, due in large part to the epistolary format but also to Richardson's deep love of circling the same topics to drive his point home, the characters go back and forth discussing the same thing for hundreds of pages at a time. To historically contextualize, the book was written in installments and was massively popular, Richardson had an audience, and a message he intended to deliver, and spared no words to make sure he richly hammered home his grievances and warnings, usually through events being addressed over and over again. At the time this was a beloved method, as it gave readers the maximum amount of time with these characters and their philosophical and moral struggles, the likes of which they had not really seen in novel form prior to Richardson's output.
All that being said, today this is no longer a bold new approach, nor the way we read novels any more. As such Clarissa extends outward for an interminable amount of time, and even if one enjoys the yearnings and sufferings and remonstrations within, even the staunchest enjoyer will tire long before the book concludes. Clarissa is more interesting as a historical artifact than a novel, and is worth reading about, but not worth reading in its entirety.
jeskedeniet's review against another edition
I couldn't continue due to mental health problems, and the triggers that where in the book
ashleylm's review against another edition
3.0
I prefer Pamela (it's finishable) but this does seem to be a better-written book, which makes sense--he invented the novel, in many respects, and once he had a go at it he felt he could do better. He certainly did longer. I liked it while I was reading it, but eventually it felt much like one of those television series you begin to binge, but by Season 3 you find yourself thinking "it's fine, but I'd rather be knitting/gardening/skiing/reading" etc.
But even though I did not finish (I got really, really far) it pains me that probably more people have read "His Shirtless Torso" (hypothetical book #17 in the "Torso" series of torrid romances) than will have tried this one. This has very much to recommend it—whereas that has very little, other than you don't have to look up words since it's written to a grade 3 level. (Sorry, a rant has been building for a few days).
(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s). I feel a lot of readers automatically render any book they enjoy 5, but I grade on a curve!
But even though I did not finish (I got really, really far) it pains me that probably more people have read "His Shirtless Torso" (hypothetical book #17 in the "Torso" series of torrid romances) than will have tried this one. This has very much to recommend it—whereas that has very little, other than you don't have to look up words since it's written to a grade 3 level. (Sorry, a rant has been building for a few days).
(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s). I feel a lot of readers automatically render any book they enjoy 5, but I grade on a curve!
jocelynw's review against another edition
2.0
I figured the longest novel originally written in English was too long to dismiss with one of my patented Extremely Reductive Reviews, so here are my kvetchings about it as I went along:
Page 72: I got this for Christmas 2016 and it's been sitting taunting me for a year. I didn't want to hamstring my 2017 reading challenge by trying to get through the longest novel written in English, but I figured if I started it now and all went well I might get through it by Christmas.
Page 160: If anyone in this book besides Clarissa was operating with the understanding that no means no, this mess'd be over already.
Page 260: So many books I read are over too fast. I don't think this'll be one of those.
Page 417: Around page 270 I thought "When is something actually going to happen?" and started flipping forward. Looked like about a hundred pages later, unless I missed something obvious in flipping forward.
I didn't.
And I did slog through that hundred pages. Clarissa would.
Page 552: I had a nightmare I was in a terrible English class in which I'd been assigned this book. The instructor was a man who was shockingly little help at conveying the cultural context of it, which is kind of an appropriate representation of this Penguin edition. Other Penguins I've used have had good notes, but maybe this one lacks them because adding notes would send the book's weight into "definite hernia" territory.
Page 654: I can't believe I'm still not even halfway there. I also can't believe that Lovelace's lackeys could get all those letters pored through and relevant extracts made in the time allotted.
Page 764: Halfway! You know, I'm beginning to think maybe Robert Lovelace is not a good person.
Page 888: It says in the preface that one of Richardson's friends he gave this to read said not to edit it down because you might lose what was instructive about it, but given the fewer-than-7,000 Goodreaders who claim to have read this and, say, the 1.3 million who've read _Jane Eyre_, a good editor might have helped spread the instructiveness further.
Page 989: Robert Lovelace: "What about the person I *didn't* sexually assault?"
That recently-deployed non-defense has a long history, I see.
Page 1112: Richardson, you had 1500 pages, much more text than plot, and you couldn't find *somewhere* to jam in Clarissa's own account of how she escaped? It's almost like you don't believe in female agency.
Page 1224: Clarissa is too angelic to be real and Lovelace too dastardly, but this depiction of a doctor telling a clearly ill young woman that it's all in her head and if she'd just exercise is true to life.
Page 1460: The last few hundred pages of this have been Richardson going DEATH DEATH DEATH DEATH DEATH IS COMING FOR US ALL YOU WILL DIE REPENT REPENT REPENT. Part of why I read so many books is to distract myself from how sick and fragile I am, so I GET IT ALREADY SAM.
Page 1478: A duel? This is where I came in.
*
In the end, I liked this better than Pamela, but I really hated Pamela.
Page 72: I got this for Christmas 2016 and it's been sitting taunting me for a year. I didn't want to hamstring my 2017 reading challenge by trying to get through the longest novel written in English, but I figured if I started it now and all went well I might get through it by Christmas.
Page 160: If anyone in this book besides Clarissa was operating with the understanding that no means no, this mess'd be over already.
Page 260: So many books I read are over too fast. I don't think this'll be one of those.
Page 417: Around page 270 I thought "When is something actually going to happen?" and started flipping forward. Looked like about a hundred pages later, unless I missed something obvious in flipping forward.
I didn't.
And I did slog through that hundred pages. Clarissa would.
Page 552: I had a nightmare I was in a terrible English class in which I'd been assigned this book. The instructor was a man who was shockingly little help at conveying the cultural context of it, which is kind of an appropriate representation of this Penguin edition. Other Penguins I've used have had good notes, but maybe this one lacks them because adding notes would send the book's weight into "definite hernia" territory.
Page 654: I can't believe I'm still not even halfway there. I also can't believe that Lovelace's lackeys could get all those letters pored through and relevant extracts made in the time allotted.
Page 764: Halfway! You know, I'm beginning to think maybe Robert Lovelace is not a good person.
Page 888: It says in the preface that one of Richardson's friends he gave this to read said not to edit it down because you might lose what was instructive about it, but given the fewer-than-7,000 Goodreaders who claim to have read this and, say, the 1.3 million who've read _Jane Eyre_, a good editor might have helped spread the instructiveness further.
Page 989: Robert Lovelace: "What about the person I *didn't* sexually assault?"
That recently-deployed non-defense has a long history, I see.
Page 1112: Richardson, you had 1500 pages, much more text than plot, and you couldn't find *somewhere* to jam in Clarissa's own account of how she escaped? It's almost like you don't believe in female agency.
Page 1224: Clarissa is too angelic to be real and Lovelace too dastardly, but this depiction of a doctor telling a clearly ill young woman that it's all in her head and if she'd just exercise is true to life.
Spoiler
Page 1460: The last few hundred pages of this have been Richardson going DEATH DEATH DEATH DEATH DEATH IS COMING FOR US ALL YOU WILL DIE REPENT REPENT REPENT. Part of why I read so many books is to distract myself from how sick and fragile I am, so I GET IT ALREADY SAM.
Page 1478: A duel? This is where I came in.
*
In the end, I liked this better than Pamela, but I really hated Pamela.
jordynjohnson's review against another edition
I’ve read classics before but this style of writing was so convoluted and hard to follow.
hannahb2713's review against another edition
3.0
Even though this is an abridged version I really enjoyed this! It is very slow in the beginning, but then it gets really good! I don’t think this book is for everyone, but I liked it a lot!