Home
Creators
Search Recent Random
Posts
Search DMs Popular Hash Lookup Tags Random
Importer
Import FAQ
Register Favorites Keys Review DMs Logout
Community
Telegram ThePornDude
Home Creators Posts Import Register Favorites Logout

Samuel Richardson's Clarissa - Lecture on Letters 100-228 (Patreon)

Published:
2022-07-26 18:47:10
Imported:
2026-06
haven't archived this post yet. have a subscription? use the importer!

Downloads

  • Clarissa Letters 100 to 228.mp3

Missing 1 full-res photo, 1 file, as this post has not yet been imported.

Content

“Such a triumph over the whole sex, if I can subdue this lady!”

The saga of Samuel Richardson's Clarissa continues. 

And today we're discussing transformation, being caught between two worlds, putting an entire sex on trial, knowledge of the human heart, ruined reputations, and much more.

Timestamps:

Letters 100-130

  • 0:00 reading Richardson for the sentiment
  • 2:50 being caught between two worlds
  • 4:00 Clarissa, Hamlet & Homer
  • 9:00 the second volume’s shift in tone
  • 10:00 Lovelace’s as master of metamorphoses
  • 12:00 going as near the truth as possible
  • 13:30 Lovelace and Satan’s snares
  • 15:20 didacticism in literature
  • 17:30 men on the nature of women
  • 19:00 every woman is at heart a rake
  • 21:00 Lovelace’s ‘hymeneal shackles’
  • 23:00 the rake is cast out of heaven
  • 25:00 Clarissa’s ruined reputation
  • 29:00 Lovelace’s testing of Clarissa
  • 34:00 the gender-swapping of Lovelace
  • 38:30 love and sex in disorder
  • 39:30 Lovelace muddles his scripture
  • 41:00 change vs degeneration
  • 44:30 Anna vs Lovelace
  • 47:00 “No man shall write for me.”

Letters 131-228

  • 49:00 London & mind-forged manacles
  • 52:00 the meaning of ruin
  • 54:00 Lovelace’s youthful “frolics”
  • 1:00:00 the curse of Clarissa’s father
  • 1:05:00 Clarissa in the whorehouse
  • 1:08:00 delusions that empower us
  • 1:13:00 Belford as Milton’s Belial
  • 1:16:00 on caging songbirds
  • 1:18:00 Cousin Morden on libertines
  • 1:22:00 Lovelace makes himself sick
  • 1:27:00 Lovelace in Clarissa’s room
  • 1:33:00 our next instalment of letters

Questions to consider:

1) How far have we come as a society since Clarissa? Do some things still ring true? 

2) What really motivates Lovelace's behaviour? 

3) What do you make of the story now that we're halfway through it? Do you have any predictions for how the story will progress?

Happy reading, everybody!

Files

Previews only

Comments

Vicky

This was good timing in terms of where I’ve got to on Kindle and am about 60 per cent through so I’m deep into the aftermath of ‚firegate ‚ 🤣 am chipping away each day and I find I need to read this at a steady pace I can’t rush it as such or I miss things. I can’t say I’m terribly bonded with any of the characters (even Clarissa) though I do quite like Anna Howe and Hickman. As i think I commented before it’s an astonishing portrait of the psychology of coercive control and abuse and it is blowing my mind to think an 18thC gent wrote this . I like him for it! The letter you reference in this talk Ben, the one by Joseph where he disclosed the previous rape etc - sent actual chills down my spine. Something about the way he writes it and the horror of it, and the fact these moments come quite suddenly in the middle of so much stuff 🤣 is actually very effective. Am enjoying! I think it’s also great at conveying the ups and downs of peoples motivations - it’s hard to know what Lovelace wants, at times and Anna does advise Clarissa all over the place at times but she’s always trying to give her the best advice at that time and I love her for that.

Tony E.

And they wrote on. Two volumes into Clarissa and I'm enjoying the detailed psychological role-playing from our protagonists, even though they don't spare the ink! In fact, it has made me re-read 'Games People Play' by Eric Berne, a book on the psychology of human relationships, and to measure the roles and games that each of the main characters plays against the examples Berne takes you through. The most interesting for me at the moment is Belford, in his role as confidant, as he is not playing to type. As the vice-captain of Lovelace's team, a position he must have achieved through a high level of alignment with Lovelace, you would expect him to reinforce Lovelace in his schemes and ambitions, but he is doing exactly the opposite. That is a courageous position to take against such a powerful, intelligent and obsessed man as Lovelace. Lovelace, however, continues to rely on Belford as, I believe, he sees him as the only one he respects enough and who can truly understand his motivations. He needs approval from Belford - but he has lost that - and I'm intrigued to see how this develops. My favourite character, though, is Anna Howe. She is a supportive confidant to our victim Clarissa, even if her thoughts and advice can go in all directions. She is at her best when she gets feisty. My favourite quote from her is at the end of letter 84 in the Everyman Vol 2: "Excuse me my dear. I am nettled. They have <i>fearfully rumpled my gorget</i>. You'll think me faulty. So I won't put my name to this separate paper. Other hands may resemble mine. You did not see me write it." Rumpled my gorget - I can see her at her writing desk, absolutely fuming!