Pressured by her unscrupulous family to marry a wealthy man she detests, the you
ng Clarissa Harlowe is tricked into fleeing with the witty and debonair Robert L
ovelace and places herself under his protection. Lovelace, however, proves himse
lf to be an untrustworthy rake whose vague promises of marriage are accompanied
by unwelcome and increasingly brutal sexual advances. And yet, Clarissa finds hi
s charm alluring, her scrupulous sense of virtue tinged with unconfessed desire.
Told through a complex series of interweaving letters, "Clarissa" is a richl
y ambiguous study of a fatally attracted couple and a work of astonishing power
and immediacy. A huge success when it first appeared in 1747, and translated int
o French and German, it remains one of the greatest of all European novels.
