Clarissa Volume 3 by Samuel Richardson

Clarissa or The History of a Young Lady by Samuel Richardson
Vol 3: Letters 93 - 154
Published: 1748
Rating: 5
Vol 1 post
Vol 2 post
Other posts: 2012 Year long reading co-hosted by Terri and JoAnn.  Post at Delaisse.
Challenge: The English Novel 

I have switched to reading the ginormous paperback bought a few weeks ago at a local library sale, mainly because the previous owned is like me, a "scribbler" (one of Richardson's favorite ways to describe his heroine's need for writing): underlining sentences, writing in the margins, circling words, writing the major theme of the page at the top, asking questions and displaying emotion with the occasional swear word, explained below.  I find it fascinating to see what another reader thought of the work.

This is my favorite volume - I couldn't read it fast enough.  In the first two volumes, the story is told primarily from Clarissa and her best friend, Anna's point of view with only 3 letters from Lovelace.  We are left dangling at the end of volume 2, when C confesses to A that she has run away with LL.  In volume 3, roughly one-third of the letters are from LL to his friend, John Belford.  So now, we are privy to his point of view - the cad and rogue.  Richardson has chosen to show the villain LL in all his vain, conceited and ugly glory (can you tell I can't stand the guy?)

I have been wracking my brains for the past few days to think of another villain in literature that is as bad as LL and had to resort to a Google search for help.  Here is a list called the "50 Greatest Villains In Literature", in which LL ranks six, beat out by 1) Satan in Paradise Lost, by John Milton, 2) Samuel Whiskers from The Tale of Samuel Whiskers, by Beatrix Potter, 3) Cruella de Vil from The Hundred and One Dalmatians, by Dodie Smith, 4) Iago from Othello, by William Shakespeare and 5) Voldemort from the Harry Potter series by JK Rowling.  To round out the top ten, the villains that follow are 7) Ambrosio from The Monk, by M G Lewis, 8) Claudius from Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, 9) Mr Kurtz from Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad and 10) Vindice from The Revenger's Tragedy, by Thomas Middleton.

The only book I have read from this list is Harry Potter and would agree that Voldemort's cruelty and disregard for human life surpasses LL.  Some of these books are on my TBR so as time goes on, I will be able to form my own opinion on the order.  Suffice it to say, to be in the top ten is pretty bad.  Surprisingly, one character who did not make this list is the ultra creepy, self-justifying pedophile, Humbert Humbert from Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov.  More interesting is that another character from the book, Clare Quilty is ranked 34.  I did read Lolita and do not remember Quilty so had to read the Wikipedia synopsis.  To me, HH should be in the list in lieu of Quilty and ranked higher.

Why is LL so bad and noted as a bastard several times by the previous owner of my book?  He is a pathological liar who reminds me of a sly, cunning, hungry cat that ultimately plans to kill and eat the poor, naive, innocent mouse but thoroughly enjoys toying and playing with it before delivering the fatal blow.  What follows are quotes that make my blood boil.

He proudly admits to manipulating C's entire family with the sole purpose of driving her to utter and total dependence upon himself.

I knew that the whole stupid family were in a combination to do my business for me....working for me, like so many underground moles; and still more blind than the moles...unknowing that they did so, I myself, the director of their principal motions; which falling in with the malice of their little hearts, they took to be all their own (Letter 97: LL to Belford).

To LL, it is all a game with Clarissa as the prize.

It was her character that drew me to her, and it was her beauty and good sense that riveted my chains, and now all together make me think her a subject worthy of my attempts, worthy of my ambition (Letter 110: LL to B).

In the midst of his game, he must show self-control but it is hard.  He dreams of the day when he can do what he wants.

....will kiss her when I please; and not stand trembling, as now, like a hungry hound who sees a delicious morsel within his reach (the froth hanging about his vermilion jaws), yet does not leap at it for his life (Letter 115: LL to B). 

The lies he tells to C are too many to note.  Then he writes this to Belford in Letter 127:

I love when I dig a pit, to have my prey tumble in with secure feet and open eyes; then a man can look down upon her, with an oh-ho charmer!  How came you there!

And even more horridly in Letter 152:

Here, I have been at work, dig, dig, dig, like a cunning miner at one time and spreading my snares like an artful fowler at another, and exulting in my contrivances to get this inimitable creature absolutely into my power.

Poor Clarissa!  She is intuitive enough to know that LL is not one who can be fully trusted but because of the increased estrangement from her family, largely due to LL's "contrivances", she has no choice but to rely upon him; a most unfortunate place to be.

Clarissa Volume 2 by Samuel Richardson

Clarissa or The History of a Young Lady by Samuel Richardson
Vol 2: Letters 45 - 92
Published: 1748
Rating: 5
Other posts: 2012 Year long reading co-hosted by Terri and JoAnn
Challenge: The English Novel audio course bibliography

Clarissa continues to be a prisoner in her own home yet somehow manages to continue her correspondence with her best friend, Anna Howe, and with Lovelace, the hated "libertine".  Regarding her contact with LL, I am reminded of the saying, "play with matches, you will get burned."

Her relationship with brother James and sister Bella continue to deteriorate.  So much so that Anna remarks in one of her letters, "A brother may not be a friend; but a friend will always be a brother" (Letter 47).

After a particularly cruel, heartless letter from James, Clarissa writes to Anna in Letter 52:  "But it is time to lay down my pen, since the ink runs nothing but gall."

In letter 56, Anna recounts a conversation between her friend, Sir Harry Downeton and Solmes in which  they were talking about women and marriage.  The horrid S is quoted as saying that "if LOVE and FEAR must be separated in matrimony, the man who make himself feared fared best!"  Anna wrote that "if my eyes would carry with them the execution which the eyes of the basilisk are said to do, I would make it my first business to see this creature."

Poor Clarissa describes her life as her family continues to pressure her to marry Solmes and LL is begging to rescue her.

How I am driven to and fro, like a feather in the wind, at the pleasure of the rash, the selfish, the headstrong!  and when I am as averse to the proceedings of the one, as I am to those of the other...what a perverse fate is mine! (Letter 80)

Volume 2 ends with a short letter 91 from C to A:

You will soon hear (if already you have not heard from the mouth of common fame) that your Clarissa Harlowe is done off with a man! - 

 Oh no, Clarissa, what have you done?!?

"Clarissa" Volume 1 by Samuel Richardson

Clarissa or The History of a Young Lady by Samuel Richardson
Vol 1: Letters 1 - 44
Published: 1748
Rating: 5
Other posts: 2012 Year long reading co-hosted by Terri and JoAnn
Challenge: The English Novel audiocourse bibliography

This has the distinction of being the longest English novel and at just under 1,500 pages, my paperback is HUGE.  I prefer reading the free downloads (9 volumes) on my iPad.

Like Pamela, Richardson's use of the epistolary format is brilliant, allowing the reader to see the events from each character's point of view.  In Volume I, most of the letters are from Clarissa to her best friend, Anna Howe but we also hear from both of C's parents, her uncles and one aunt, the horrible brother and sister, James and Arabella (think Cinderella's jealous and vengeful stepsisters, hundred fold); Mr. Lovelace, the handsome, rich scoundrel who relentlessly pursues Clarissa;  Mr. Solmes, the ugly and disagreeable chosen husband for Clarissa whom she despises, and Anna.  The view is close and personal.  Richardson uses all the novelist's tools within these letters: scene and setting, description and dialogue.  It is fascinating to read.

Regarding the plot, not a whole lot happens within the first 44 letters but the story remains interesting and the drama/tension between the characters is high.  Clarissa is pressured from all sides to marry Mr. Solmes, a wealthy man whose fortune, if tied with the Harlowe family could result in a coveted peerage for James.  When she continues to refuse, she suffers the ultimate "time-out", banished to her room, sees her personal maid dismissed and must resort to corresponding with her family members living in the same home via, you guessed it, letters.

I am taking notes while I read and writing down favorite quotes.  At this pace, I may be reading this book for most of the year!   Here are a few quotes and why I like them.

Anna writes very candidly about the greed and envy that motivates James and Arabella's actions against Clarissa.

Avarice and envy are two passions that are not to be satisfied, the one by giving, the other by the envied person's continuing to deserve and excel.  Fuel, fuel both, all the world over, to flames insatiate and devouring (Letter 10).   

Poisons and poniard have often been set to work by minds inflamed by disappointed love, and actuated by revenge.  Will you wonder, then, that the ties of relationship in such a case have no force, and that a sister forgets to be a sister? (Letter 15) 

...they must look upon you as a prodigy among them, and prodigies, you know, though they obtain our admiration, never attract our love.  The distance between you and them is immense.  Their eyes ache to look up at you.  What shades does your full day of merit cast upon them?  Can you wonder, then, that they should embrace the first opportunity that offered, to endeavor to bring you down to their level? (Letter 27)

Anna and Clarissa both recognize that wealth does not equal happiness.

...none of your family but yourself could be happy were they not rich.  So let them fret on, grumble and grudge, and accumulate; and wondering what ails them that they have not happiness when they have riches, think the cause is want of more, and so go on heaping up, till Death, as greedy an accumulator as themselves, gather them into his garner (Letter 10: A to C). 

I am fully persuaded, that happiness and riches are two things, and very seldom meet together (Letter 19: C to A). 

Both girls liken C's situation to being a bird caught in a snare.

My brother got me into his snares; and I, like a poor, silly bird, the more I struggle, am the more entangled (Letter 22: C to A).  

I most heartily despise that sex! ...but to be cajoled, wire-drawn, and ensnared, like silly birds; into a state of bondage, or vile subordination; to be courted as princesses for a few weeks, in order to be treated as slaves for the rest of our lives (Letter 27: A to C). 

In spite of tremendous pressure to marry Solmes, Clarissa remains stubborn in her refusal. 

But surely they will yield - Indeed I cannot.  I believe the gentlest spirits when provoked (causelessly and cruelly provoked) are the most determined.  The reason may be, that not taking up resolutions lightly - their very deliberation makes them the more immoveable (Letter 14: C to A).

Letter 30 - finally one from Mr. Lovelace to his friend, John Belford. This letter reveals LL's pursuit of C to be motivated by a selfish and vain love; she rejects him which makes him want her more. This is very reminiscent of Mr. B in Pamela. What is it with men?  They like the chase, the pursuit, the challenge, the conquest?  The following quotes show his true colors to the reader which makes it even more awful when we see Clarissa's skeptical distrust of LL slowly eroding.  I want to warn her - watch out!

He makes plans "to secure her mine, in spite of them all; in spite of her own inflexible heart; mine without condition; without reformation-promises....bringing that sordidly imperious brother to kneel at the footstool of my throne."  As he imagines his victory..."then the rewarding end of all!  To carry off such a girl as this, in spite of all her watchful and implacable friends and in spite of a prudence and reserve that I never met with in any of the sex; - what a triumph! - What a triumph over the whole sex! - and then such a revenge to gratify....."

With writing like this, I am looking forward to reading Volume II.

Pamela by Samuel Richardson

Pamela by Samuel Richardson
Published: 1740
Rating: 5
Lists: 1,001

This is the first book in my English Novel Challenge and I LOVED IT!  Considered one of the first books written in the novel format, Richardson tells the story through letters that the heroine Pamela wrote to her parents and through her diary.

At the beginning of the book, we are introduced to Pamela, a beautiful, young servant girl of sixteen.  After her Lady's death, she is pursued by the misogynistic unmarried son, Mr. B (Prof. Spurgeon likens him to Mr. Big in Sex and the City) who will not allow Pamela to return home.  While many girls in her situation may have welcomed and accepted being these advances, Pamela has been raised to honor God with her mind, soul and body. Therefore her virtue must be protected at all costs.  This is reinforced by her parents who write, "Arm yourself, my dear Child, for the worst; and resolve to lose your Life sooner than your Virtue."

The constant rejection drives Mr. B mad.  His treatment of poor Pamela worsens until he basically kidnaps and holds her prisoner at one of the family estates with a horrible woman keeper, Mrs. Jewkes.  Pamela's description is priceless and reminds me of Madame Thénardier in Les Miserable.

Now I will give you a Picture of this Wretch!  She is broad, squat, pursy, fat Thing, quite ugly, if any thing God made can be ugly; about forty Years old.  She has a huge Hand, and an Arm as thick as my Waist, I believe.  Her Nose is flat and crooked, and her Brows grow over her Eyes; a  dead, spiteful, grey, goggling Eye, to be sure, she has. And her Face is flat and broad; and as to the Colour, looks like as if it had been pickled a Month in Salt-petre: I dare say she drinks! - She has a hoarse man-like Voice, and is as thick as she's long; and yet looks so deadly strong, that I am afraid she would dash me at her Foot in an Instant, if I was to vex her - So that with a Heart more ugly than her Face, she frightens me sadly; and I am undone, to be sure, if God does not protect me; for she is very, very wicked - indeed she is.

What makes this story so interesting is to see the affect this beautiful but penniless and powerless girl has on others as they come to realize that her outward beauty is not her greatest asset; it is her inner character of virtue, humility, and kindness.  Mr. B comes to appreciate her after confiscating and reading her letters.  Beforehand, he thought she was like other women - rebellious, manipulative and playing games with his affections.  Her letters reveal something else entirely.  Some of my favorite quotes show the progression of Mr. B's realization.

You are possess'd of an open, frank and generous Mind; and a Person so lovely, that you excel all your Sex in my Eyes.  All these Accomplishments have engaged my Affections so deeply, that, as I have often said, I cannot live without you; and I would divide with all my Soul, my Estate with you, to make you mine upon my own Terms.  These you have absolutely rejected; and that, tho' in sawcy Terms enough, yet, in such a manner, as to make me admire you more.

He writes of the willingness to turn his back upon centuries of social expectation to marry beneath his class:

I found the Tables intirely turn'd upon me, and that I was in far more Danger from you than you was from me; for I was just upon resolving to defy all the Censures of the World, and to make you my Wife.

What he says to her on their wedding night:

Your Mind is as pure as that of an Angel, and as much transcends mine.  Your Wit and your Judgement, to make you no Compliment, are more than equal to mine: You have all the Graces that Education can give a Woman; improv'd by a Genius which makes those Graces natural to you.  You have a Sweetness of Temper and a noble Sincerity, beyond all Compare; and in the Beauty of your Person, you excel all the Ladies I ever saw.  Where then, my Dearest, is the Obligation, if not on my side to you?  But to avoid these Comparisons, let us talk of nothing henceforth but Equality; for if you will set the Riches of your Mind, and your unblemished Virtue, against my Fortune (which is but an accidental Good, as I may call it, and all I have to boast of) the Condescension will be yours; and I shall not think I can possibly deserve you, till, after your sweet Example, my future Life shall become nearly as blameless as yours.

What he says unashamedly to his friends as they are introduced to his wife:

My Pamela's person, all lovely as you see it, is far short of her mind; that first impressed me in her favor; but that only made me her Lover.  But they were the beauties of her mind, that made me her husband.

Through Pamela's conviction to live a virtuous and righteous life, Mr. B follows suit and their marriage ends up being fulfilled and happy.  Poetic justice prevails!  I look forward to reading Clarissa, Richardson's tragic novel.

On a side note, it is interesting to see passages that remind me of other works.   When Pamela is imprisoned, she thinks about escape.  "But let Bulls, and Bears, and Lions, and Tygers, and what is worse, false, treacherous deceitful Men stand in my Way...." Did the Wizard of Oz's "lions, tigers and bears, oh my!" come from this, I wonder?

When Pamela sees that plans are moving forward for her upcoming nuptials with Mr. B, she writes, "He was so good as to tell me, he had given Orders for the Chapel to be clear'd.  O how I look forward with inward Joy, yet with Fear and Trembling!"  This reminded me of Jane Eyre's overflowing happiness when she prepares to wed Mr. Rochester, the first time.  I wrote in the margin, "too good to be true?"

Challenge: "The English Novel"

The English Novel  by Professor Timothy Spurgin
Audiocourse by The Great Courses
Rating: 5
Listened:  November 2011

Borrowed from the library, I had high hopes for this course based on his other course, The Art of Reading.  I listen to the CD's while driving so one requirement is that they are interesting and this did not disappoint. This course begins with what is typically regarded as the first English novel, Pamela (1740) by Samuel Richardson and ends with notable contemporary works by Ian McEwan, Salman Rushdie and Zadie Smith.  18th century books such as Tom Jones (1749) by Henry Fielding, Tristam Shandy (1759-1767) by Laurence Sterne and The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) by Ann Radcliffe have been added to my TBR pile.  Works by Sir Walter Scott (Waverly 1814) and Henry James (The Portrait of a Lady 1881) join other 19th century "to-be-read" authors: Austen, Bronte, Dickens, Thackeray and Eliot.  In Spurgin's discussion of a particular novel, he not only talks about the work itself, but spends time on the author's biography and the time period in which he/she wrote.  He ties in critical historical and social events that influence the writer and the work.  His love for literature is evident and so each lecture was a pleasure to listen to.  I would highly recommend.

In 2012, I have challenged myself to read half the novels in the course.  The number in parenthesis is the rating given to the book.  I use the GoodReads system. 

1 - didn't like it
2 - it was ok
3 - liked it
4 - really liked it
5 - it was amazing

Here is the list:

• 1719 - 1720 - Love in Excess by Eliza Haywood
• 1740 - Pamela by Samuel Richardson - read January 2011 (5)
• 1747 - 1749 - Clarissa by Samuel Richardson (divided into 9 ibook volumes)
•  Vol 1, Vol 2, Vol 3,  
• 1749 - Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
• 1759 - 1767 - Tristam Shandy by Laurence Sterne
• 1778 - Evelina by Frances Burney
• 1794 - The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe
• 1813 - Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - read a while ago (5)
• 1814 - Waverley by Sir Walter Scott
• 1815 - Emma by Jane Austen - read in Feb 2011 (4)
• 1826 - Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper (American)
• 1836 - 1837 - The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens
• 1837 - 1843 - Lost Illusions by Honore de Balzac (French)
• 1847 - Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte - read in Nov. 2009 (5) 
• 1847 - Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
• 1847 - 1848 - Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
• 1849 - 1850 - David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
• 1851 - Moby Dick by Herman Melville (American)
• 1852 - 1853 - Bleak House by Charles Dickens
• 1857 - Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert - read in May 2011 (3).  My dislike for M. Bovary affected how I felt about the book. I could appreciate the literary style but did not like the story. 
• 1860 - Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
• 1860 - 1861 - Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
• 1865 - 1869 - War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
• 1871 - 1872 - Middlemarch by George Eliot
• 1875 - 1877 - Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy- read in Sept 2011 (4)