A Letter From Clarissa

In the first reply to her friend Anna Howe, Clarissa Harlowe writes that not only has her family lately been distracted, it's been in "tumults". <1>  She attributes this disturbance especially to Robert Lovelace.

II.

Mr. Lovelace has come to the family country estate to court Arabella Harlowe.  Lovelace has much to recommend him as a suitor.  He is handsome, well-educated, rich, and bound to become much richer through his inheritances.  Why then does he hesitate to make the marriage proposal to Arabella that everyone expects?  It develops that hesitation has nothing to do with Lovelace's conduct.  Nor is it "bashfulness", as Arabella would like to believe.

Lovelace has set his sights on Arabella's younger sister, the beautiful, accomplished and virtuous Clarissa.  But before he can properly pursue Clarissa, he has to have his suit rejected by Arabella.  This will require some cunning on the gentleman's part.

No matter.  A confident and immoral seducer, Lovelace is no stranger to cunning.  He eventually does propose to Arabella, but "not till by some means or other ([Arabella] knew not how) he had wrought her up to such a pitch of displeasure with him...that she was under a necessity" to reject him.

Lovelace thinks he has thus cleared the way to begin his romance of Clarissa.  But as in all tragic love stories, he has actually met the person to his annihilation, and Miss Harlowe, hers.

III.

The epistolary form and exceptional length <2> of Samuel Richardson's Clarissa (1748) makes it challenging for a contemporary reader.  Having completed a reading, I can affirm that as a social history and a study of two souls in particular, Clarissa much rewards the effort it asks.  "I am obliged to lay down my pen", Miss Harlowe concludes her letter above, "I will soon resume it."  Resume Clarissa beyond her first letter, and one of the greatest works in the novel awaits you.
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<1>Richardson, Samuel. Clarissa. 1985 Edition: Penguin Classics.
<2>537 Letters. 1534 pages in the Penguin Classics, or about a million words.