Clarissa Harlowe or the history of a young lady — Volume 7

Richardson, Samuel, 1689-1761Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 4.2

Word count: 2.7K words
Chapters: 1

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Clarissa Harlowe; or the history of a young lady — Volume 7 by Samuel RichardsonAuthor: Richardson, Samuel, 1689-1761,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Apr 1, 2004

Editor's review

This is Volume 7 of Richardson's epistolary novel Clarissa, a key part of the latter half of the work. In this volume readers see the plot move toward its close, as the characters' fates and the moral conflicts gradually come into focus. The epistolary form brings readers close to the characters' inner lives and judgments, making it well suited to observing how the eighteenth-century English novel builds narrative tension through private correspondence. This volume is not self-contained; its value lies largely in continuous reading with the first six volumes, where themes such as family authority, women's situation, reputation, and seduction are presented more concentratedly. The Project Gutenberg edition is easy to search and to check against the original text, making it useful as supplementary material for literature courses or for researchers verifying the text. If you are reading for research on the epistolary novel, eighteenth-century English literature, or women's narrative, this volume deserves close reading; if you seek light entertainment, you should first catch up on the preceding text.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers working systematically through the whole of Clarissa who need to fill in the later plot
Literature students studying narrative technique in the eighteenth-century English epistolary novel
Literature enthusiasts interested in themes of women's situation and family authority
Teachers who need a free English source text as course supplementary material

Not a good fit for

Readers who have not read the first six volumes and hope to start independently with this volume
Readers who prefer fast-paced plots and lack patience for a long epistolary novel
Readers who need a Chinese translation or modern retelling for general reading

Reading tips

Read the first six volumes first, or at least learn the main character relationships, before entering this volume, to avoid a break in the plot.
While reading, note the sender and recipient of each letter to keep track of the shifting perspectives in the multi-threaded correspondence.
Read alongside materials on eighteenth-century English social history to understand the period context of family honour and marriage arrangements.
If used for a course, select two or three key letters for close reading and classroom discussion.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Can this volume be read on its own?

Not recommended. This is Volume 7 of Clarissa, and its plot and character relationships build on the first six volumes; reading it alone means missing a great deal of prior context and makes it hard to understand the characters' motives and the origins of the conflicts. It is best to read in order, or at least to learn the overall plot summary and main characters first.

What language is this edition in?

According to the data, the book is in English, published by Project Gutenberg as a free eBook. The text is the original English, suitable for readers with some English reading ability or for researchers who need to check the original English text.

What should I keep in mind when reading an epistolary novel?

An epistolary novel is made up of correspondence among multiple characters, with frequent shifts in perspective. While reading, pay attention to the sender, recipient, and chronological order of each letter in order to follow the narrative. It helps to map the character relationships as you read, so as not to confuse the positions of different correspondents.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Richardson, Samuel, 1689-1761 Author

Samuel Richardson (1689–1761) was an English novelist known for his epistolary fiction. The library holds 15 of his works, including the multi-volume Clarissa Harlowe and Volume II of Pamela. Clarissa centers on the fate of a young woman and unfolds through a large body of letters, revealing inner lives and family conflict, while Pamela follows the experiences of a maidservant and explores moral trials and ideas of marriage. Richardson is noted for the epistolary form, detailed psychological portrayal, and emotional intensity, and he had a significant influence on the later development of the English novel. Public information is limited, so his biographical details are not elaborated here; this overview is based only on the works held and general literary knowledge.