Collation: 2 ll., 52 pp.
SAMUEL RICHARDSON
(1689-1761)
47. Clarissa. | Or, The | History | Of A | Young Lady: | [Six lines] Publiſhed by the Editor of Pamela. | Vol. I. | London: | Printed for S. Richardſon: | And Sold by A. Millar, over-againſt Catharine-ſtreet in the Strand: | J. and Ja. Rivington, in St. Paul's Church-yard: | John Osborn, in Pater-noſter Row; | And by J. Leake, at Bath. | M.DCC.XLVIII.
Pamela was written at the suggestion of two booksellers, Rivington and Osborne, who published it in four volumes in 1741-42; and as it proved a great success its "Editor" followed it with Clarissa. Only the last five volumes appeared in 1748, the first two having come out the previous year.
In connection with the mistaken idea, which has existed, that there were eight volumes in the first edition, Mr. Dobson, in his life of Richardson, gives us these quotations from the author himself:
"There were in fact, in the first edition, not eight volumes but seven. "I take the liberty to join the 4 Vols. you have of Clarissa, by two more," says Richardson to Hill in an unpublished letter of November 7, 1748. "The Whole will make Seven; that is, one more to attend these two. Eight crowded into Seven by a smaller Type. Ashamed as I am of the Prolixity, I thought I owed the Public Eight Vols. in Quantity for the Price of Seven"; and he adds a later footnote to explain that the 12mo book "was at first published in Seven Vols. [and] Afterwards by deferred Restorations made Eight as now."" Then Mr. Dobson goes on to add the following:
"Of the seven volumes constituting the first edition, two were issued in November, 1747; two more in April, 1748 (making "the 4 Vols. you have," above referred to); and the remaining three, which, according to Mr. Urban's advertisement, "compleats the whole," in December, 1748."
The second and succeeding volumes have the line, And Sold by John Osborn, in Pater-noſter-Row, added to the imprint, after Richardson's name.