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A review by abigail_ted
Clarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady by Samuel Richardson
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
5.0
Woo! I finally finished rereading it! - January 1st 2024
Review from Aug 2021:
Both the best and worst thing I have ever read. I usually only give five stars to books that fulfil two criteria; that I would gladly read it multiple times and that my life changed in some way by reading it. Clarissa has been the thorn in my side and the joy in my step for seven months. Richardson is undoubtedly a remarkable talent with his intricate prose and his rich (and I would vouch to say, rarely matched) characterisations. But the book is let down by its intimidating length.
I wouldn’t mind the length so much if it wasn’t often so repetitive, and sometimes downright tedious and boring. I think this would be much better as a novel of 800-900 pages. Towards the end of the novel, Richardson fails to allow his already quite obvious imagery to take the lead and, with a clumsy fist, hammers in an abundance of moral lectures he has already well laboured throughout the rest of the novel.
The contrast between angelic Clarissa and the Beelzebub Lovelace is both delightfully amusing and horror-inspiring to read. The religious zeal is one of the things that made this book so interesting for me, but even for a student of 18th-century evangelical Christian movements, sometimes I just wanted Richardson to shut up and let the story happen.
Overall, I think the story is a beautifully bitter tragedy and next time I will politely skip over Richardson’s droning…
Review from Aug 2021:
Both the best and worst thing I have ever read. I usually only give five stars to books that fulfil two criteria; that I would gladly read it multiple times and that my life changed in some way by reading it. Clarissa has been the thorn in my side and the joy in my step for seven months. Richardson is undoubtedly a remarkable talent with his intricate prose and his rich (and I would vouch to say, rarely matched) characterisations. But the book is let down by its intimidating length.
I wouldn’t mind the length so much if it wasn’t often so repetitive, and sometimes downright tedious and boring. I think this would be much better as a novel of 800-900 pages. Towards the end of the novel, Richardson fails to allow his already quite obvious imagery to take the lead and, with a clumsy fist, hammers in an abundance of moral lectures he has already well laboured throughout the rest of the novel.
The contrast between angelic Clarissa and the Beelzebub Lovelace is both delightfully amusing and horror-inspiring to read. The religious zeal is one of the things that made this book so interesting for me, but even for a student of 18th-century evangelical Christian movements, sometimes I just wanted Richardson to shut up and let the story happen.
Overall, I think the story is a beautifully bitter tragedy and next time I will politely skip over Richardson’s droning…