In the spirit of the Clarissa Project’s emphasis on primary texts and contexts, Clarissa: The
Eighteenth-Century Response, 1747–1804 brings together examples of the extensive and
impressively varied reaction to the novel from the moment of its publication to the first edition
of Richardson’s correspondence.
Drawn from sources in Britain, the Continent, and North America, the material assembled by
editor Lois E. Bueler ranges from casual readers’ responses to extended critical essays in the
major publications of the day; from verse elegies to poetic appreciations; from an English shopkeeper’s
diary to a distraught young German woman’s plea for pastoral advice; from fictionalized
conduct books to novels about the London sex trade; from debates among the most celebrated
intellectuals of the century to dramatic adaptations written in four languages.
Volume I, Reading Clarissa, brings together some 200 separate texts to give a sense of the century’s
entire conversation about Clarissa. With this text readers will for the first time be able to access
in a single volume not just the often-mentioned comments of such major figures as
Johnson, Rousseau, and Diderot but also responses such as the German conversations surrounding
von Haller, Gellert, and Klopstock; the commentary in the Correspondence littéraire;
the novel’s fortunes in translation, including the late but enthusiastic participation of the Spanish;
the use of Clarissa and its characters in nearly a score of novels; references and extended arguments
in didactic and conduct literature; and North American reactions from a verse paean to
printing and printers to an enthusiastic consideration attributed to Charles Brockden Brown.
Volume II, Rewriting Clarissa, presents adaptations of the novel. While two of these are already
available to the determined scholar—the Clarissa portion of The Paths of Virtue Delineated and
George Colman’s one-act farce Polly Honeycombe—the six full-length dramas Bueler has selected
are extremely rare. The German, Spanish, and French plays she includes have never before
been translated, and one of them—Népomucène Lemercier’s Lovelace—has not previously been
printed.
All the items mentioned in these related but independent volumes refer to, correct, or add to the
standard Richardson bibliographies of Sarah W. R. Smith (1984) and R. G. Hannaford (1969).
Each volume contains an index of names and brief biographies of the approximately 160 writers
represented.
Volume 1 Contents
Preface
Introduction
1. First Reactions, 1747–1752
2. Friends of Samuel Richardson
3. Obituaries and Biographies
4. Readers’ Responses
5. Clarissa in Novels and Plays
6. Ethics and Education
7. Literary Criticism
8. Looking Back: Barbauld and Her Reviewers
Index
Volume 2 Contents
Preface
Introduction
1. Oliver Goldsmith [?], The Paths of Virtue Delineated
2. George Colman, Polly Honeycombe
3. Johann Heinrich Steffens, Clarissa
4. Jean François Née de la Rochelle, Clarisse Harlove
5. Robert Porrett, Clarissa, or The Fatal Seduction
6. Louis Jean Népomucène Lemercier, Lovelace
7. Anonymous, Clarisse, ou La Vertu Malheureuse
8. Antonio Marqués y Espejo, Miss Clara Harlove
Index
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data [For Volume 1]
Clarissa : the eighteenth-century response, 1747–1804. Volume 1, Reading Clarissa / edited and introduced by Lois E. Bueler.
p. cm. — (AMS studies in the eighteenth century, ISSN 0196-6561 ; no. 60)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-404-63810-8 (v. 1 : acid-free paper) — ISBN 978-0-404-64860-2 (set : acid-free paper)
1. Richardson, Samuel, 1689–1761. Clarissa.
2. Richardson, Samuel, 1689–1761—Appreciation—Europe.
3. Richardson, Samuel, 1689–1761—Criticism and interpretation—History—18th century.
4. Epistolary fiction, English—History and criticism—Theory, etc.
5. Authors and readers—Great Britain—History—18th century.
6. Criticism—Great Britain—History—18th century.
I. Bueler, Lois E.
II. Title: Reading Clarissa
PR3664.C43C56 2009
823'.6—dc22 2008030519
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data [For Volume 2]
Clarissa : the eighteenth-century response, 1747–1804. Volume 2, Rewriting Clarissa / edited and introduced by Lois E. Bueler.
p. cm. — (AMS studies in the eighteenth century, ISSN 0196-6561 ; no. 61)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-404-63811-5 (v. 2 : acid-free paper) — ISBN 978-0-404-64860-2 (set : acid-free paper)
1. Richardson, Samuel, 1689–1761—Adaptations.
I. Bueler, Lois E.
II. Colman, George, 1732–1794. Polly Honeycombe.
III. Steffans, Johann Heinrich, 1711–1784. Clarissa.
IV. Née de la Rochelle, J.-F. (Jean-François), 1751–1838. Clarisse Harlove.
V. Porrett, Robert, fl. 1788. Clarissa, or The fatal seduction.
VI. Lemercier, Népomucène-Louis, 1771–1840. Lovelace.
VII. Marqués y Espejo, Antonio. Miss Clara Harlove.
VIII. Title: RewritingClarissa
IX. Title: Paths of virtue delineated.
X. Title: Clarisse, ou La Vertu Malheureuse.
PR3667.C58 2009
823'.6—dc22 2008540789
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