克拉丽莎 (1748)

克拉丽莎·哈洛，或一位年轻女士的历史是英国作家塞缪尔·理查森于1748年出版的书信体小说。这部小说讲述了一位名叫克拉丽莎·哈洛的年轻女子的悲惨故事，她对美德的追求不断受到家人的阻挠。哈洛一家是新近富裕起来的家庭，他们一心想提高自己的社会地位，对提升社会地位的执念导致他们对女儿克拉丽莎实施病态控制。

2015年，英国广播公司将该小说列为英国100部最伟大小说中的第14部。 2013年，卫报将该小说列为英语100部最佳小说之一。

Clarissa; or, The History of a Young Lady: Comprehending the Most Important Concerns of Private Life. And Particularly Shewing, the Distresses that May Attend the Misconduct Both of Parents and Children, In Relation to Marriage is an epistolary novel by English writer Samuel Richardson, published in 1748. The novel tells the tragic story of a young woman, Clarissa Harlowe, whose quest for virtue is continually thwarted by her family. The Harlowes are a nouveau riche family whose preoccupation with increasing their standing in society leads to obsessive control of their daughter, Clarissa.

Many versions of the book exist, because Samuel Richardson rewrote the novel several times and he had it republished with the revisions. It is considered one of the longest novels in the English language (based on estimated word count). It is generally regarded as Richardson's masterpiece. In 2015, the BBC ranked Clarissa 14th on its list of the 100 greatest British novels. In 2013, The Guardian included Clarissa among the 100 best novels written in English.

Plot summary

Robert Lovelace, a wealthy libertine, courts Clarissa's older sister Arabella, who rejects him for addressing his suit to her parents rather than to her. He turns to Clarissa, inflaming Arabella's jealousy and the hostility of their brother James, who had once fought a duel with him; both siblings resent that their grandfather left Clarissa an estate. The Harlowes press Clarissa to marry Roger Solmes, whom she finds repellent, and her refusal convinces them that her professed dislike of Lovelace is a lie. The family confines Clarissa to her room and forbids her to write to her friend Anna Howe until she consents. She corresponds with Anna in secret, and begins a clandestine correspondence with Lovelace. Neither side will concede, and communication between parents and daughter breaks down.

Lovelace has come to regard Clarissa's famed virtue as a challenge, boasting to his friend John Belford that he intends to put it to "trial", and relishing the chance to spite the Harlowes. He presses her to elope. She reluctantly agrees, then writes to call it off, but he deliberately leaves the letter unread in its hiding place. When she comes in person at the appointed hour to tell him, his servant stages a commotion at the house. Fearing discovery, she stops resisting and is carried off.

In his power, Clarissa rightly suspects that he means to seduce rather than wed her. Her family refuse to forgive the perceived betrayal of her elopement, and her father invokes a curse upon her, that her disobedience will bring her ruin in this world and punishment in the next.

Lovelace holds her for months in several lodgings, including, unknown to her, a brothel, whose women he passes off as respectable ladies. He introduces her to his rakish friends, among them Belford, who becomes an admirer and urges him to marry her. Lovelace mocks him and continues the "trial". Under the pretence of rescuing her from a fire he forces his way into her bedroom; she repels him and, under threat of rape, promises to marry him. Considering a promise made under duress void, she escapes to lodgings in Hampstead.

Lovelace finds, takes the rooms around her and hires impostors to play his respectable relations. He intercepts a warning letter from Anna Howe and forges others to end the correspondence. He persuades Clarissa to go out in a carriage with the false relatives and carries her back to the brothel, where, with the help of the madam and the prostitutes, he drugs and rapes her.