WeBuzz
Reader discussion: Clarissa
Public reader discussion about Clarissa in the WeRead Catalog by Samuel Richardson.
Clarissa?
By prologue_chaffer1978
Hey! I’ve been wanting to read Clarissa for a long time since someone told me about it, and I finally have enough free time to actually start Richardson’s novel. But I’m a bit confused about the layout—since it was originally released in nine volumes, is that nine separate parts, or is it grouped into three bigger books with three volumes each?
I usually go with audiobooks, and I feel like that might work well because the physical book is probably huge, but I don’t want to accidentally miss anything. Any advice on the best way to read the full story?
Samuel Richardson's Clarissa — A Toweringly Great Novel
By field-chance8064
I just found this place and I’ve been wandering through older threads. One thing I keep seeing is that Clarissa by Samuel Richardson almost never makes the “best novels” lists people put together, so I figured I’d throw my hat in and actually argue for it.
Yeah, the big thing is the length. It’s close to a million words (it honestly feels like you’re reading a whole brick), and the Penguin Classics edition looks less like a normal book and more like a phone book. Still, I really do think it deserves to be considered one of the greatest novels ever written. If you like serious literature, and especially tragic stories, this one feels worth the hype.
At the core, it’s basically the template for those psychological three-act tragedies: a smart, stubborn young woman stuck in an unhappy engagement, Clarissa runs off with Lovelace, who starts out as that “sexually liberated” type but turns out to be genuinely creepy and dangerous. He keeps trying to wear her down, but she won’t fold. Then it turns into this slow, awful back-and-forth that ends with Clarissa dying painfully and Lovelace being driven mad. After she’s gone, he somehow reforms and converts… not really to Christianity, more like “to Clarissa,” and then he dies too, like it’s supposed to be penance.
I don’t have religion (and I’m guessing a lot of people here don’t), but I found the whole tragedy vibe kind of thrilling in a pagan-ish way, especially since the author’s view of religion feels sort of off or shallow, especially about women and “purity.”
He’s also very big on moralizing, but at the same time, Richardson somehow writes characters who are actually alive and constantly pulling the story forward. It’s wild to think this was written when the English novel was still getting started, because it somehow takes the form and launches it into something new. Without Richardson, who knows what Austen or Eliot would’ve been doing, since they definitely wouldn’t be building on the same foundation.
Anyway, for me Clarissa is a real page-turner and one of the most complete novels I’ve read. It’s not a light weekend thing—you’ve gotta commit—but it feels like you get a lot back.
TL;DR: It’s a masterpiece. If you can stick it out, it’s worth it. (If you need a TL;DR, you might not be able to get through Clarissa.)
Stormlight 5: Wind and Truth is listed as 1344 pages - is that the longest fantasy novel bound in a single volume ever?
By YellowCricket1993
Do you happen to know any longer books—like, ones with more pages in hardcover?
Most Experimental Novels of All-time
By curiousBookmark
I’ve been reading up a lot lately and I’m really into experimental novels. The ones that have stood out to me so far are:
- Bottom’s Dream (Arno Schmidt)
- Darconville’s Cat (Alexander Theroux)
- Women and Men (Joseph McElroy)
Those three are the most appealing to me at the moment. I know I’m supposed to also mention the usual names like Joyce, David Markson, and other postmodern writers, but I kind of gravitate more toward the weird, rare, more obscure stuff.
Are there any other experimental novels that hit that same level (or even go crazier than these)? Also, what do you all think about super experimental lit in general—are you into it, or does it not really work for you? And do you feel like there’s some point where experimental novels can’t (or shouldn’t) go any further?
What is a classic that has admittedly aged badly, but you still like?
By ion
Honestly, for me it’s Samuel Richardson’s *Pamela*. I know it’s pretty messed up and sometimes just in really bad taste, but I still ended up enjoying it—the writing style, the main character, and how the story kept moving.
I’m studying English Literature and Language right now, so I’m running into a lot of books that are… problematic, to put it mildly. But I still feel like I can judge them by their time, and *Pamela* is one of those I managed to do that with. Same goes for stuff like *Moll Flanders*, *The Rape of the Lock*, and *Tristram Shandy*.
Which forgotten books deserve to be remembered?
By fern_hardcover75
It feels like every time new books get released, the older ones just keep piling up dust. Not the lucky classics that everyone praises, but the tons of unread, forgotten books that end up sitting in antique shops, getting tossed in landfills, or hanging out in someone’s basement.
Every now and then though, you find a gem. I just read *Ralph Herne* by W.H. Hudson (1888), and it’s a really solid novel—also weirdly relevant, since it’s about a deadly pandemic that spreads through Argentina and it gets pretty vivid about it. Still, I can’t help wondering: who else read it last year? Like, maybe one person? Maybe two? Or probably nobody?
So what are some really good older books (30+ years) that basically nobody ever mentions—no book clubs, no bookstore display, no Netflix adaptation—but that you genuinely liked and think should get remembered?
Where is the Samuel Richardson’s “Clarissa 3.0”?
By Mirror_Late
I haven’t read Clarissa yet, but I do plan to. I keep hearing I should go with the Penguin Classics version because it’s supposedly the original full, uncut text.
But then I also heard Richardson made an even longer third edition, like the first versions weren’t getting his point, so he expanded it.
So I’m wondering—where would I even find that third edition?
Also, part of me thinks it could be kind of fun to read it again one day, the “big book monster” version, and compare the two.
What are your thoughts on Girlfriend in a Coma by Douglas Coupland?
By followsForest60
Honestly, I mostly struggled with the book’s themes. I could see what it was trying to say about modern life, but the tone just didn’t work for me, and I can’t tell if I’m missing something or if it’s just not clicking. The ending especially felt kinda forced to me, like it didn’t fit.
It also felt like the author contradicted himself a bunch, though maybe that’s on me for misunderstanding. On top of that, I thought the characters were pretty bland overall, and the way things were written really annoyed me for some reason—Karen in particular. I don’t feel like there was much growth for anyone until the last few chapters, and maybe that was meant to be that way. So yeah, I’m curious what other people thought.
Obviously we are on this sub and don't believe in banning books. But if through some fluke you could ban just one book, what would it be?
By notebookPencil
At first I was thinking about maybe banning Clarissa or The History of a Young Lady, and I even considered Lolita for a bit, just because I’m totally over hearing the most off-the-wall takes about it (and about Nabokov too). Grapes of Wrath made the list for me as well. And honestly, a few months ago I tried to read Whose Body? by Dorothy Sayers and ended up with a really firm dislike for it—I couldn’t finish because of how much it pushes anti-Semitic and classist stuff.
But if I had to pick one thing to ban, I think it’d be The Fountainhead. I feel like it’s past its “heyday,” kind of like the author. It’s a pretty ridiculous story and I don’t think it has any real literary value—like, even some random cheap romance from a thrift store is probably better written. I also don’t really hear younger people talking about it, which feels like a good sign… or maybe I’m just not paying attention. Either way, better safe than sorry.
So what would you ban, and why?
In 2024 I want to read (or begin reading) Clarissa and Tale of Genji
By acornzenith
I’m kind of freaked out by the first one. Like, it’s supposedly the longest novel ever written in English (and yeah, I don’t really want to argue about the details—it’s still insanely long). Even just skimming around and hitting random sections feels like it’s not going to be a quick, easy read at all.
Genji seems way more doable since the translations are in modern English, but it still feels pretty intimidating.
Also, I want to read more versions of Don Quixote too.
So—has anyone here read Clarissa and/or Genji?
MY DEATH by Lisa Tuttle
By acornzenith
I read this pretty quick (like in a couple days), and I’m honestly not sure why people online were hyping it up so much. They kept calling it “uncanny,” “unpredictable,” “moving,” and “surprising,” but to me it mostly fell flat.
It read really easily, I’ll give it that, but I was under a third of the way through before I could tell what the whole “and then I woke up” thing was going to be. I had the basic setup, even if I couldn’t see exactly how it would play out yet.
What made me roll my eyes was this whole situation where the main character is suddenly asked to take other people sailing. The boat is there, she’s able to sail it all by herself, and there’s even a rubber dinghy on it. Fine. But she hasn’t looked at or thought about the boat in two years, and somehow the marina owner is just taking care of it the whole time, perfectly ready to go, even though nobody asked.
I mean… in real life, getting anyone to maintain your boat the way you want is ridiculously hard. If you show up with zero notice and just ask, “Is my boat ready?” you’d get laughed out of the place. Hull, rigging, sails, all the deck stuff, lines, steering, electrics, motor, safety gear, bilge, fuel system—the list goes on. And yet she just swings by and they’re out on the water. Super convenient.
There are also little “gotchas” that felt like they’d be more fun if they weren’t so obvious. Like the narrator brings up reading MRS DALLOWAY three times, and there’s a character named Clarissa (so… you know). Then there’s a photo of Clarissa’s mom meeting someone and it turns out to be Virginia Woolf, and the mom tried to kill herself by… jumping out a window. Same vibe as Septimus from MRS DALLOWAY. It’s not that I hate references, I just didn’t find them that rewarding.
And the ending has some kind of awkward geographic/logistical thing going on too, but it’s basically ignored. Maybe it’s meant to feel mysterious or magical, but I have no idea.
Overall, if they tightened it and made it way more focused, I think it’d work better as a short story. As a roughly 100-page novella, though, it left me kinda underwhelmed.