Has anyone read this? I've been curious to read it since it was referenced in Atonement, which has become one of my favorite novels. I do not have the time or the money to read the full, unabridged $25 Penguin version, but I was curious to see if there were any thoughts on this. There is a somewhat less expensive abridgement out there by Signet.

Thoughts would be appreciated!

I haven't read it... I just remember in college in a course on the development of the novel they kept banging on and on about it. I remember the professor saying that someone had studied it and calculated that it was physically impossible for Clarissa to have actually written all of her letters in the time given for the plot in the novel, they are so long (and so long-winded!).

There's a reason there's an abridged version - maybe that would be a little more palatable!

I hated Clarissa because it was hundreds of hundreds of pages basically about a perverse madman torturing and raping a virtuous woman until she went on a fast and let herself die to be free of him.

Totally opposite - and very inspiring - is Richardson's History of Sir Charles Grandison, THE book that inspired all Jane Austen's novels. You can't find the original 1800 page novel online for under $300, although you can buy used copies of SOME of the volumes and download them at Google books. I've read all the volumes now, and love the book because it's truly about two people of real integrity who fall in love and struggle with both internal and external obstacles to be the best persons they can be and finally marry (although there is an abduction scene near the beginning with some sadistic behavior, but not anywhere near as perverse as Clarissa). There's an excellent highly condensed version available for sale at Amazon.com.........

Tracy Marks

I've read the abridged & unabridged versions of Clarissa.  Unless you're reading it in order to do a scholarly study, I'd go for the abridged. 

ditto - I didn't find Clarissa worth the read.  I read it when studying the history of the novel, but I would never have bothered finishing it if it wasn't for a class.

Calling Clarissa perverse is accurate. I love 18th and 19th century novels and have read many. Reading Clarissa was suffering for me. Her suffering really was tedious.

Added to say that I kept wishing she would die and get it over with.

I have the book but haven't read it yet.  I got it after finishing Pamela by Richardson and loving it.