Clarissa Harlowe; or the history of a young lady — Volume 1
The following History is given in a series of letters, written Principally in a double yet separate correspondence;
Between two young ladies of virtue and honor, bearing an inviolable friendship for each other, and writing not merely for amusement, but upon the most interesting subjects; in which every private family, more or less, may find itself concerned; and,
Between two gentlemen of free lives; one of them glorying in his talents for stratagem and invention, and communicating to the other, in confidence, all the secret purposes of an intriguing head and resolute heart.
But here it will be proper to observe, for the sake of such as may apprehend hurt to the morals of youth, from the more freely-written letters, that the gentlemen, though professed libertines as to the female sex, and making it one of their wicked maxims, to keep no faith with any of the individuals of it, who are thrown into their power, are not, however, either infidels or scoffers; nor yet such as think themselves freed from the observance of those other moral duties which bind man to man.
On the contrary, it will be found, in the progress of the work, that they very often make such reflections upon each other, and each upon himself and his own actions, as reasonable beings must make, who disbelieve not a future state of rewards and punishments, and who one day propose to reform—one of them actually reforming, and by that means giving an opportunity to censure the freedoms which fall from the gayer pen and lighter heart of the other.
And yet that other, although in unbosoming himself to a select friend, he discovers wickedness enough to entitle him to general detestation, preserves a decency, as well in his images as in his language, which is not always to be found in the works of some of the most celebrated modern writers, whose subjects and characters have less warranted the liberties they have taken.
In the letters of the two young ladies, it is presumed, will be found not only the highest exercise of a reasonable and practicable friendship, between minds endowed with the noblest principles of virtue and religion, but occasionally interspersed, such delicacy of sentiments, particularly with regard to the other sex; such instances of impartiality, each freely, as a fundamental principle of their friendship, blaming, praising, and setting right the other, as are strongly to be recommended to the observation of the younger part (more specially) of female readers.
Samuel Richardson
CLARISSA HARLOWE
or the
HISTORY OF A YOUNG LADY
PREFACE
NAMES OF THE PRINCIPAL PERSONS
LETTERS OF VOLUME I
THE HISTORY OF CLARISSA HARLOWE
LETTER I
MISS ANNA HOWE, TO MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE JAN 10.
LETTER II
MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE HARLOWE-PLACE, JAN. 13.
LETTER III
MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE JAN. 13, 14.
LETTER IV
MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE JAN. 15.
LETTER V
MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE JAN. 20
LETTER VI
MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE HARLOWE-PLACE, JAN. 20.
LETTER VII
LETTER VIII
MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE FEB. 24.
LETTER IX
MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE FEB. 26, IN THE MORNING.
LETTER X
MISS HOWE, TO MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE FEB. 27
LETTER XI
MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE WEDNESDAY, MARCH 1.
LETTER XII
MISS HOWE, TO MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE THURSDAY MORNING, MARCH 2.
LETTER XIII
MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE WEDNESDAY, MARCH 1.
LETTER XIV
MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE THURSDAY EVENING, MARCH 2.
LETTER XV
MISS HOWE, TO MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE FRIDAY, MARCH 3.
LETTER XVI
LETTER XVII
MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE
LETTER XVIII
MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE SAT. MAR. 4.
LETTER XIX
LETTER XX
MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE SAT. AFTERNOON.
LETTER XXI
MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE SAT. NIGHT.
LETTER XXII
MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE SUNDAY MORNING, MARCH 5.
LETTER XXIII
MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE MONDAY MORNING, MARCH 6.
LETTER XXIV
MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE MONDAY, NEAR 12 O'CLOCK.
LETTER XXV
MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE TUESDAY, MARCH 7.
LETTER XXVI
MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE THURSDAY MORN., MARCH 9.
LETTER XXVII
MISS HOWE, TO MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE THURSDAY NIGHT, MARCH 9.
LETTER XXVIII
MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE FRIDAY, MARCH 10.
LETTER XXIX
MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE SATURDAY, MARCH 11.
LETTER XXX
MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE SUNDAY NIGHT, MARCH 12.
LETTER XXXI
MR. LOVELACE, TO JOHN BELFORD, ESQ. MONDAY, MARCH 13.
LETTER XXXII
MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE TUESDAY, MARCH 14.
LETTER XXXIII
MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE THURSDAY, MARCH 16.
LETTER XXXIV
MR. LOVELACE, TO JOHN BELFORD, ESQ. FRIDAY, MARCH 17.
LETTER XXXV
MR. LOVELACE, TO JOHN BELFORD, ESQ.
LETTER XXXVI
MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE SATURDAY, MARCH 18.
LETTER XXXVII
MISS HOWE, TO MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE. SUNDAY, MARCH 19.
LETTER XXXVIII
MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE MONDAY, MARCH 20.
LETTER XXXIX
MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE MONDAY, MARCH 12.
LETTER XL
LETTER XLI
MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE TUESDAY, MARCH 21.
LETTER XLII
MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE
LETTER XLIII
MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE TUESDAY, MARCH 21.
LETTER XLIV
MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE WENESDAY MORNING, NINE O'CLOCK.