'I am working at Richardson now, and will send you the paper by the end of the week. I suppose I ought to be ashamed to confess that, tedious as he often is, I feel less difficulty in getting through him than in reading Fielding, and that as a matter of taste I actually prefer Lovelace to Tom Jones! I suppose that is one of the differences between men and women which even Ladies' Colleges will not set to rights.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Margaret Oliphant Print: Book
'Her favourite novels included those of Burney, whom she thought "the very best of English novelists", and of Richardson, especially "Sir Charles Grandison".'
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Jane Austen Print: Book
'In 1753 Catherine Talbot stayed with the Berkeley family and participated enthusiastically in readings of "Sir Charles Grandison".'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Catherine Talbot Print: Book
'Susan Sibbald knew Scottish shepherd Wully Carruthers who was a fellow-subscriber to the circulating library at Melrose, but while she borrowed Ann Radcliffe, he read "Ancient and Modern History", though he did sometimes read a "novel or nonsense buke", like "Sir Charles Grandison". He had also read Alan Ramsay's "The Gentle Shepherd", and contrasted it ironically with the life of a real shepherd.'
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Wully Carruthers Print: Book
At home all day. [...] My wife read part of Clarissa Harlowe to me in the even as I sat a-posting my book.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Margaret 'Peggy' Turner Print: Book
"Christopher Wordsworth Jr. wrote of W[ordsworth]: 'The week before he took his degree he passed his time in reading Clarissa Harlowe.'"
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: William Wordsworth Print: Book
'Clarissa Harlowe was not more interesting [than Thomas Clarkson, The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the African Slave-Trade] when I first read it at 14 years of age.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Dorothy Wordsworth Print: BookManuscript: Unknown
[According to Flora Thompson], "Modern writers who speak of the booklessness of the poor at that time must mean books as possessions...there were always books to borrow"... One could borrow Pamela and the Waverley novels from a neighbour, Christies Old Organ from the Sunday School library. Her uncle, a shoemaker, had once carted home from a country-house auction a large collection of books that no-one would buy: novels, poetry, sermons, histories, dictionaries. She read him Cranford while he worked in his shop... Later she could borrow from her employer (the village postmistress) Shakespeare and Byron's Don Juan, as well as Jane Austen, Dickens and Trollope from the Mechanics' Institute library.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Flora THompson Print: Book
"On 5 Jan 1806 D[orothy] W[ordsworth] told Lady Beaumont;
"'My Brother chanced to meet with Richardson's letters at a Friend's house, and glancing over them, read those written by Mrs Klopstock, he was exceedingly affected by them and said it was impossible to read them without loving the woman.'"
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: William Wordsworth Print: Book
'Robert Southey on "The Correspondence of Samuel Richardson" in letter to C. W. Williams Wynn, 27 November 1804: "Richardson's correspondence I should think worse than anything of any celebrity that ever was published ... The few letters of Klopstock's Wife must be excepted from this censure: they are ... very affecting; indeed the notice of her death, coming ... after that sweet letter in which she dwells upon her hopes of happiness from that child whose birth destroyed her, came upon me like an electric shock."'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book
[due to the fact that books in working class communities were generally cheap out of copyright reprints, not new works] Welsh collier Joseph Keating was able to immerse himself in Swift, Pope, Fielding, Richardson, Smollett, Goldsmith, Sheridan, Goldsmith, Keats, Byron, Shelley, Dickens and Greek philosophy, as well as the John Dicks edition of Vanity Fair in weekly installments. The common denominator among these authors was that they were all dead. "Volumes by living authors were too high-priced for me", Keating explained. "Our schoolbooks never mentioned living writers; and the impression in my mind was that an author, to be a living author, must be dead and that his work was all the better if he died of neglect and starvation".'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Keating Print: Book
Wee are much obliged to you for sending in Pamela, but I must tell you how it entertained us, Miss Jenny and I cryed most heartily at the Reading of it. I believ it is true, for I verely think I know the Gent. & Lady that occasioned it, indeed it is sweetly wrote & I hope will shew both sexes how right it is to marry upon a good foundation.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Cust Print: Book
" I read to my beloved no 97 of the Rambler written by Richardson, author of those inimitable books Pamela, Clarissa and Sir Charles Grandison."
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Eleanor Butler Print: Serial / periodical
'On learning that [Hall] Caine was to present twenty-four lectures in Liverpool on "Prose Fiction" ... [D. G. Rossetti] insisted that he read the works [of English novelists] aloud to him; hence "I read Fielding and Smollett, Richardson, Radcliffe, 'Monk' Lewis, Thackeray and Dickens, under a running fire of comment and criticism from Rossetti".'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Hall Caine Print: Book
?To my mind Hugo is far more dramatic in spirit than Fielding, though his method involves (as you show exceedingly well) a use of scenery & background wh. would hardly be admissible in drama. I am not able ? I fairly confess ? to define the dramatic element in Hugo or to say why it is absent from Fielding & Richardson. Yet surely Hugo?s own dramas are a sufficient proof that a drama may be romantic as well as a novel.?
Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Stephen Print: Book
"By what unction of purity our great grand mothers were preserved when they studied Pamela without danger or disgust we know not. There are many points of Richardson?s writings more injurious, because less shocking, to virtue than the sonnets of Rochester. Clarissa is less objectionable, though many of the scenes at Mrs Sinclair?s are such as are wholly unfit for modern readers.?
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Robert Maturin Print: Book
"By what unction of purity our great grand mothers were preserved when they studied Pamela without danger or disgust we know not. There are many points of Richardson?s writings more injurious, because less shocking, to virtue than the sonnets of Rochester. Clarissa is less objectionable, though many of the scenes at Mrs Sinclair?s are such as are wholly unfit for modern readers.?
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Robert Maturin Print: Book
?In his Sir Charles Grandison, the inherent vulgarity, egotism and prolixity of Richardson?s character breakout with a latitude unexampled and uncontrolled. His personages, forever listening to or repeating their own eulogy, forever covering their own selfishness with arrogant humility, preaching forever in a monotonous key of maudlin morality, bowing on hands, and asking the benison of aunts and grandmothers, are now as flat and faded as the figures in an ancient tapestry but, like them, compensate in some measure for the dullness of the design by the fidelity of the costume.?
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Robert Maturin Print: Book
'Sneyd and Charlotte have begun Sir Charles Grandison: I almost envy them the pleasure of reading Clementina?s story for the first time. It is one of those pleasures which is never repeated in life.'
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Maria Edgeworth Print: Book
'As a collier [Joseph Keating]... heard a co-worker sigh, "Heaven from all creatures hides the book of fate". Keating was stunned: "You are quoting Pope". "Ayh", replied his companion, "me and Pope do agree very well". Keating had himself been reading Pope, Fielding, Smollett, Goldsmith and Richardson in poorly printed paperbacks. Later he was reassigned to a less demanding job at a riverside colliery pumping station, which allowed him time to tackle Swift, Sheridan, Byron, Keats, Shelley and Thackeray'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Keating Print: Book
'In the year 1816 we were at Brighton for the summer holidays, and he read to us "Sir Charles Grandison". It was always habit in our family to read aloud every evening.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babbington Macaulay Print: Book
'[Harriet Grove] enjoyed novels and plays: in 1809-10, she read with pleasure in a family group a number of popular bestsellers (which in the period means largely novels by women), including Lady Morgan's "The Novice of Saint Dominick", Agnes Maria Bennett's "The Beggar Girl and her Benefactors", Edgeworth's "Tales of Andrews", "Sir Charles Grandison" and "A Sentimental Journey"'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Grove Print: Book
'In the month of April 1792... Anna read Richardson's "Clarissa" for the second time - "the style is prolix, the manners obsolete, & I felt fidgeted at the repetitions not being 15, yet surely it is wonderfully wrought."'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Anna Larpent Print: Book
'in the even I wrote my London letters... also read the News paper... as I was a writing all the even my wife read "Clarissa Harlowe" to me.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Peggy Turner Print: Unknown
'My wife read part of "Clarissa Harlowe" to me in the even as I sat a-posting my book.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Peggy Turner Print: Book
[while he was doing his accounts Turner's wife read aloud to him] 'the moving Scene of the Funeral of Miss Clarissa Harlowe' - "Oh: may the Supreme Being give me Grace to lead my life in such a manner as my Exit may in some respect be like that Divine Creature."
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Peggy Turner Print: Book
'In the even my wife finished reading of "Clarissa Harlowe", which I look upon as a very well-wrote thing though it must be allowed it is too prolix. I think the author keeps up the character of every person in all places; and as to the manner of its ending, I like it better than if it had terminated in more happy circumstances.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Peggy Turner Print: Book
'While I was writing the two volumes [of Pamela], my worthy-hearted wife, and the young lady who is with us, when I had read them some part of the story, which I had begun without their knowing it, used to come in to my little closet every night with - "Have you any more of Pamela, Mr R...?"'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Richardson Manuscript: Unknown, manuscript of his novel
'The Persons who have seen [the manuscript of "Clarissa"], and whom I could not deny, are Dr Heylin, and his Lady, both excellent Judges and fond of Writings of Amusement: Miss Cheyne, Daughter of my late dear Friend the Doctor; a young Lady of Taste and Reading. Mr Freke, the Surgeon, whom once I mentioned to you, and who read it with a Friend of his. Dr Young has seen a great Part of it; and Mr Cibber Senior, having heard of it, and liking "Pamela", was very desirous to see it; and I being put in hope, that he would not spare it, was desirous he should'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: John Heylin Manuscript: Unknown, early MS version
'The Persons who have seen [the manuscript of "Clarissa"], and whom I could not deny, are Dr Heylin, and his Lady, both excellent Judges and fond of Writings of Amusement: Miss Cheyne, Daughter of my late dear Friend the Doctor; a young Lady of Taste and Reading. Mr Freke, the Surgeon, whom once I mentioned to you, and who read it with a Friend of his. Dr Young has seen a great Part of it; and Mr Cibber Senior, having heard of it, and liking "Pamela", was very desirous to see it; and I being put in hope, that he would not spare it, was desirous he should'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mrs Heylin Manuscript: Unknown, early MS version
'The Persons who have seen [the manuscript of "Clarissa"], and whom I could not deny, are Dr Heylin, and his Lady, both excellent Judges and fond of Writings of Amusement: Miss Cheyne, Daughter of my late dear Friend the Doctor; a young Lady of Taste and Reading. Mr Freke, the Surgeon, whom once I mentioned to you, and who read it with a Friend of his. Dr Young has seen a great Part of it; and Mr Cibber Senior, having heard of it, and liking "Pamela", was very desirous to see it; and I being put in hope, that he would not spare it, was desirous he should'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Miss Cheyne Manuscript: Unknown, early MS version
'The Persons who have seen [the manuscript of "Clarissa"], and whom I could not deny, are Dr Heylin, and his Lady, both excellent Judges and fond of Writings of Amusement: Miss Cheyne, Daughter of my late dear Friend the Doctor; a young Lady of Taste and Reading. Mr Freke, the Surgeon, whom once I mentioned to you, and who read it with a Friend of his. Dr Young has seen a great Part of it; and Mr Cibber Senior, having heard of it, and liking "Pamela", was very desirous to see it; and I being put in hope, that he would not spare it, was desirous he should'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: John Freke Manuscript: Unknown, early MS version
'The Persons who have seen [the manuscript of "Clarissa"], and whom I could not deny, are Dr Heylin, and his Lady, both excellent Judges and fond of Writings of Amusement: Miss Cheyne, Daughter of my late dear Friend the Doctor; a young Lady of Taste and Reading. Mr Freke, the Surgeon, whom once I mentioned to you, and who read it with a Friend of his. Dr Young has seen a great Part of it; and Mr Cibber Senior, having heard of it, and liking "Pamela", was very desirous to see it; and I being put in hope, that he would not spare it, was desirous he should'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Young Manuscript: Unknown, early MS version
'The Persons who have seen [the manuscript of "Clarissa"], and whom I could not deny, are Dr Heylin, and his Lady, both excellent Judges and fond of Writings of Amusement: Miss Cheyne, Daughter of my late dear Friend the Doctor; a young Lady of Taste and Reading. Mr Freke, the Surgeon, whom once I mentioned to you, and who read it with a Friend of his. Dr Young has seen a great Part of it; and Mr Cibber Senior, having heard of it, and liking "Pamela", was very desirous to see it; and I being put in hope, that he would not spare it, was desirous he should'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Colley Cibber Manuscript: Unknown, early MS version
?On our coming home & Candles being brought in he took up a volume of "Clarissa Harlowe" (w?ch we happen?d then all to be reading) but having sat about 10 minutes without turning over a leaf, suddenly clos?d the book & went off to bed.?
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: John Marsh Print: Book
Another great source of amusement as well as knowledge, I have met with in reading almost all the best novels (Cervantes, Fielding, Smollet, Richardson, Miss Burney, Voltaire, Sterne, Le Sage, Goldsmith and others).?
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: James Lackington Print: Book
'Well,? at the Lower Rooms we saw this Woman, ? whose Face carries an affirmation of all this account, ? it is bold, hardened, painted, snuft, leering & impudent! Just such a face as I should Draw for Mrs. Sinclear ? Her Dress, too, was of the same cast, a thin muslin short sacque & Coat lined throughout with Pink, ? a [ital] modesty bit [close ital.] [xxxxx 2 words] ? & something of a [ital.] very [ital.] short cloak half concealed about half of her old wrinkled Neck? the rest was visible to disgust the beholders, ? red Bows and Ribbons in abundance, a Gauze Bonnet tipt on to the top of her Head, & a pair of Mittens! ? We were all curious to see this Queen of Bath, as she is called, on account of the expensive Entertainments she makes, & therefore we got very near to her.
. . . a Wretch notorious for all manner of evil: a wretch who, Miss Bowdler has told me, endeavours as much , by dispersing obscene Books, to corrupt youth, as to assist already corrupted maturity in the prosecution of vice!'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Frances Burney Print: Book
'Ask Miss Trimmer when it is have you done Clarissa you will be surprised to see so many little dabs of Letters, but it's silly wit'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Caroline Lamb Print: Book
'Miss Clarissa Harlowe is just dead & I really am so much discomposed at it & at Lovelaces grief to whom I do not think she behaved quite handsomely that I can prate no more nonsense [...] I have been 3 years & 7 months reading "Clarissa" and have now half another volume to finish'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Caroline Lamb Print: Book
'My lamp is burning out, and it is time I was going to my chamber fireside, - there to finished the last 1/2 vol of "Clarissa Harlowe" which I have borrowed from Lambton. What a very bad book it is! - and I expected quite the contrary, tho' hating Grandison. Clarissa herself is odious, - with her rash actions suiting so ill with her passionless, reasoning, self-possessed character...'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Martineau Print: Book
'He [James, the Austens' servant] has that the laudable thirst I fancy for Travelling, which in poor James Selby was so much reprobated.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Jane Austen Print: Book
Elizabeth Missing Sewell on her mother, Jane Sewell (nee Edwards; married 1802):
'She must have been naturally very clever; for, although she had received little or no
education, her knowledge of books, and her memory for poetry and apt quotations, were quite
remarkable. She often talked to us of her studies as a girl; how she used not only to devour
novels, and read Sir Charles Grandison every winter, but how she also taught herself a little
French, learned by heart long passages from the great poets, sometimes read history, and
especially delighted in Bayley's Dictionary, with its long meanings and rules for pronunciation.'
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Jane Edwards Print: Book
'I staid at home and read "Charles Grandison" that we have in French a charming book'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth (Betsey) Wynne Print: Book
'The Day was beautifull and I enjoyed the sweetness of the weather in riding walking and sitting out in the fields with a book - "Charles Grandisson" I am but at the second volume much amuses me I have begun to read also in English Robertsons history of America and Blairs lectures on Rhetoric and belles lettres - We have bought these books at Basle where they are well printed and cheap'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth (Betsey) Wynne Print: Book
'I read of "Grandisson" - That Book pleases and interests me very much'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth (Betsey) Wynne Print: Book
'I have done to read "Grandisson" that book has amused me vastly'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth (Betsey) Wynne Print: Book
Letter to MIss Ewing October 3, 1778 'I am glad you were so well entertained at the Fairley by my old acquaintance Clarissa, and your new acquaintance Mr. Monteith. I observe you frequently preferred the company of the former to the latter, and am pleased to find you so partial to my favourite heroine. Never, sure, were characters so well drawn, discriminated and supported as those in ?Clarissa?. ...' [comment continues]
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Grant [nee MacVicar] Print: Book
'finish the letters of Emile and read a part of Clarissa Harlowe'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book
'read Vol VI of Clarissa'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book
'read Vol VII of Clarissa - Shelley reads the letters of Emile'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book
'finish Bryan Perdue - write - not well in the evening begin Sir C. Grandison'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book
'read Sir C.[harles] G.[randison]
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book
'read Grandison and Curt. Shelley reads and finishes Montainge [sic] to his great sorrow - he reads Lucian'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book
'begin Pamela. Shelley reads Locke and in the evening Paradise Lost aloud to me'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book
'Read Pamela - Little Babe not well - S. reads Locke & Pamela'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book
'Read Pamela - Little Babe not well - S. reads Locke & Pamela'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book
'Read Locke - Shelley reads Locke and Curt - & Pamela aloud in the evening'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book
'In the evening read an Italian Translation of Pamela'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book
'Shelley has finished the life of Tasso & reads Dante - read Pamela'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book
'begin Clarissa Harlowe in Italian - S. reads and finishes Dante's Purgatorio'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book
'Thursday April 16. Finish the Depit Amoureux read Les precieuses ridicules. Also part of
Clarissa Harlowe.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book
'Friday April 17th. Read Clarissa Harlowe and Amphitryon of Moliere.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book
'Wednesday April 22. [...] Read Clarissa Harlowe.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book
'Sunday Sept. 3rd. [...] Read Clarissa Harlowe.'
[further readings of this text recorded in journal entries for 4, 5, 6, 7, 12, 13 September 1820;
'Finish Clarissa Harlowe' recorded in entry for 14 September].
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book
'Since I left Rome I have read several books of Livy - Antenor - Clarissa Harlowe - The Spectator - a few novels - & am now reading the Bible & Lucan's Pharsalia - & Dante'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book
[Mary Shelley's Reading List of her reading in 1819. All are mentioned in journal entries so are not given separate entries here]
'2 Vols of Montaigne
Forsyths tour
Romans de la Chevalerie
Vision de Quivedo
Clarissa Harlowe
The Spectator
The Bible as far as the Psalms
in latin
Twenty books of Livy - making thirty with the ten of last year
Lucan's Pharsalia
3 books of Horace
Gussman d'Afarache
Memoires du Compte de Grammont
Lettres de Madme Sevigne'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book
'I performed one Herculean task, having nearly finished Clarissa Harlowe, the most glorious novel ever written, & I advise you begin it as soon as you can.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Darwin Print: Book
'By the way, I am in the train of reading the "History of Clarissa", who affords a notable example that fear is not the effectual mode. Pray did you ever go through that work? There is, indeed, tautology of sense - the same thing said ten thousand times over. I should be glad to hear your thoughts of that work.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sir William Elford Print: Book
'I am doubtful whether the opinion of the world is so much in favour of Richardson's talents as formerly. It appears to me that there is not one character in the whole work that has any natural train in it, or any marks of distinction, which it required any considerable talents to depict....' [extensive criticism of "Clarissa" follows]
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sir William Elford Print: Book
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 24 March 1842:
'Richardson's correspondence has charmed me -- "charming" being the right word, since I
verily & indeed believed myself wrapt up close in the domestic brocades of the Harlowe
family, all the time I spent in reading it. His own letters are letters out of his romances to the
very crossing of the t[']s [...] Lady Bradleigh [sic] is delightful -- -- I don't wonder that he
tired himself with pacing up & down Hyde Park in his desire to catch a glimpse of her! [...] I
read that volume with quite a romance-palpitation. Thank you, thank you for telling me of the
book'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
'She often talked to us of her studies as a girl; how she used not only to devour novels and read Sir Charles Grandison every winter, but how she also taught herself a little French, learned by heart long passsages from the great poets, sometimes read history, and especially delighted in Bayley's Dictionary, with its long meanings and rules for pronunciation'.
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Jane Edwards Print: Book
[having been given some money by Samuel Richardson] 'I really was confunded, till, recollecting that I had read [italics] Pamela [end italics], and been told it was written by one Mr [italics] Richardson [end italics], I asked him whether he was not the Author of it? He said, he was the Editor: I told him, my Surprize was now over, as I found he had only given to the incomparable [italics] Pamela [end italics] the Virtues of his own worthy Heart'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Laetitia Pilkington Print: Book
'"Flimsy novel language disgusts" her; and she "perceives a difference between 'Sir Charles Grandison' and the common novels one now meets with, like that between roast beef and whipt syllabub".'
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart Print: Book
'Clarissa Harlowe. Have read 1/3 of [...] Certainly I am bored, but the book is not tedious through repetition -- the endless variety and modulations are not in themselves interesting enough [...] Granted her premises about copulation and relations, Cl. deduces with delicacy and truth. Within her conventions, she is sound. She is tragic and charming. Rich[ardson]. had a tragic mind [quotes passages] [...]
'The book raises the question of subject-matter. Within its limits it is great. But what limits!'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book
'"Sir, (continued he) there is all the difference in the world between characters of nature and characters of manners; and [italics] there [end italics] is the difference between the characters of Fielding and those of Richardson. Characters of manners are very entertaining; but they are to be understood, by a more superficial observer, than characters of nature, where a man must dive into the recesses of the human heart."
It always appeared to me that he estimated the compositions of Richardson too highly, and that he had an unreasonable prejudice against Fielding. In comparing those two writers, he used this expression ; "that there was as great a difference between them as between a man who knew how a watch was made, and a man who could tell the hour by looking on the dial-plate." '
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Print: Book
'"Sir, (continued he) there is all the difference in the world between characters of nature and characters of manners; and [italics] there [end italics] is the difference between the characters of Fielding and those of Richardson. Characters of manners are very entertaining; but they are to be understood, by a more superficial observer, than characters of nature, where a man must dive into the recesses of the human heart."
It always appeared to me that he estimated the compositions of Richardson too highly, and that he had an unreasonable prejudice against Fielding. In comparing those two writers, he used this expression ; "that there was as great a difference between them as between a man who knew how a watch was made, and a man who could tell the hour by looking on the dial-plate." '
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: James Boswell Print: Book
'Speaking of the French novels, compared with Richardson's, he said, they might be pretty baubles, but a wren was not an eagle'. [account by Dr Maxwell, an Irish London priest friend of Dr Johnson]
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Print: Book
'Fielding being mentioned, Johnson exclaimed, "he was a blockhead :" and upon my expressing my astonishment at so strange an assertion, he said, "What I mean by his being a blockhead is, that he was a barren rascal." Boswell. "Will you not allow, sir, that he draws very natural pictures of human life?" Johnson. "Why, sir, it is of very low life. Richardson used to say, that had he not known who Fielding was, he should have believed he was an ostler. Sir, there is more knowledge of the heart in one letter of Richardson's than in all 'Tom Jones'. I indeed, never read 'Joseph Andrews.'" Erskine. "Surely, sir, Richardson is very tedious." Johnson. "Why, sir, if you were to read Richardson for the story, your impatience would be so much fretted that you would hang yourself. But you must read him for the sentiment, and consider the story as only giving occasion to the sentiment." I have already given my opinion of Fielding ; but I cannot refrain from repeating here my wonder at Johnson's excessive and unaccountable depreciation of one of the best writers that England has produced. "Tom Jones" has stood the test of publick opinion with such success as to have established its great merit, both for the story, the sentiments, and the manners, and also the varieties of diction, so as to leave no doubt of its having an animated truth of execution throughout.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Print: Book
'Fielding being mentioned, Johnson exclaimed, "he was a blockhead :" and upon my expressing my astonishment at so strange an assertion, he said, "What I mean by his being a blockhead is, that he was a barren rascal." Boswell. "Will you not allow, sir, that he draws very natural pictures of human life?" Johnson. "Why, sir, it is of very low life. Richardson used to say, that had he not known who Fielding was, he should have believed he was an ostler. Sir, there is more knowledge of the heart in one letter of Richardson's than in all 'Tom Jones'. I indeed, never read 'Joseph Andrews.'" Erskine. "Surely, sir, Richardson is very tedious." Johnson. "Why, sir, if you were to read Richardson for the story, your impatience would be so much fretted that you would hang yourself. But you must read him for the sentiment, and consider the story as only giving occasion to the sentiment." I have already given my opinion of Fielding ; but I cannot refrain from repeating here my wonder at Johnson's excessive and unaccountable depreciation of one of the best writers that England has produced. "Tom Jones" has stood the test of publick opinion with such success as to have established its great merit, both for the story, the sentiments, and the manners, and also the varieties of diction, so as to leave no doubt of its having an animated truth of execution throughout.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Erskine Print: Book
Edward Fitzgerald to Alfred Tennyson, Christmas 1862:
'I have, as usual, nothing to tell of myself: boating all the summer and reading Clarissa Harlowe since; you and I used to talk of the book more than 20 years ago. I believe I am better read in it than almost any one in existence now. No wonder, for it is almost intolerably tedious and absurd.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Fitzgerald Print: Book
Marginalia and marginal lines. Includes dates and places of reading by George Otto Trevelyan: v.2: Oct 7 1891; v.3: Glasgow Oct 15 1891; v.4: Milan Oct 24 1891; v.5 Rome Oct 30 1891; vol.7: "On our homeward journey from Rome Dec. 2 1891".
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Otto Trevelyan Print: Book
'To Richardson as a Writer he gave the highest Praises, but mentioning his unquenchable Thirst after Applause That Man said he could not be content to sail gently down the Stream of Fame unless the Foam was continually dashing in his Face, that he might taste it at Every Stroke of the Oar'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Print: Book
'I myself like Smollet's Novels better than Fielding's; the perpetual Parody teizes one; - there is more Rapidity and Spirit in the Scotsman: though both of them knew the Husk of Life perfectly well - & for the Kernel - you must go to either Richardson or Rousseau'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Hester Lynch Thrale Print: Book
'Was I to make a Scale of Novel Writers I should put Richardson first, then Rousseau; after them, but at an immeasurable Distance Charlotte Lenox, Smollet & Fielding. The Female Quixote & Count Fathom I think far before Tom Jones or Joseph Andrews with regard to Body of Story, Height of Colouring, or General Powers of Thinking. Fielding however knew the Shell of Life - and the Kernel is but for a few.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Hester Lynch Thrale Print: Book
'Read the Clementina part of "Sir Charles Grandison". I have never met with anything which affected me so powerfully; at present I feel disposed to place this work above all other works of fiction I know. It is very, very grand, and has, I think, a greater practical effect on me for good than anything I ever read in my life.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Book
'I am reading "Clarissa Harlowe" with all the pleasure in the world…It is the cleverest book in some ways that can be imagined; and deals with so many absorbing problems from different points of view….'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Book
'We know comparatively little of [Jane Austen's] literary tastes. Some are peculiar. Her fondness
for the gentle, close truth and quiet power of Cowper is consistent; but it is perplexing to find
that the grave, moral, austere Dr. Johnson was her favourite prose writer. The coarseness of
Fielding she could not forgive, and though she admired "Sir Charles Grandison," she thought
Richardson tedious.'
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Jane Austen Print: Book
Aaron Hill to Samuel Richardson, 17 December 1740:
'You have agreeably deceived me into a surprise, which it will be as hard to express, as the beauties of Pamela. Though I opened this powerful little pie with more expectation than from common designs of like promise, because it came from your hands for my daughters, yet who could have dreamed he should find, under the modest disguise of a novel, all the soul of religion, good breeding, discretion, good-nature, wit, fancy, fine thought and morality? I have done nothing but read it to others, and have others again read it to me, ever since it came into my hands [...] if I lay the book down, it comes after me. When it has dwelt all day long upon the ear, it takes possession, all night, of the fancy [goes on to request that Richardson let him know the name of the author, saying 'since I feel him the friend of my soul, it would be a kind of violation to pretend him a stranger']'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Aaron Hill Print: Book
Aaron Hill to Samuel Richardson, 17 December 1740:
'You have agreeably deceived me into a surprise, which it will be as hard to express, as the beauties of Pamela. Though I opened this powerful little pie with more expectation than from common designs of like promise, because it came from your hands for my daughters, yet who could have dreamed he should find, under the modest disguise of a novel, all the soul of religion, good breeding, discretion, good-nature, wit, fancy, fine thought and morality? I have done nothing but read it to others, and have others again read it to me, ever since it came into my hands [...] if I lay the book down, it comes after me. When it has dwelt all day long upon the ear, it takes possession, all night, of the fancy [goes on to request that Richardson let him know the name of the author, saying 'since I feel him the friend of my soul, it would be a kind of violation to pretend him a stranger']'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Aaron Hill Print: Book
Aaron Hill to Samuel Richardson, 29 December 1740:
'We have a lively little boy in the family [...] quite unfriended, and born to no prospect. He is the son of an honest, poor soldier [...] the boy [...] is so pretty, so gentle, and gay-spirited, that we have made him, and designed him, our own, ever since he could totter and aim at words [...] He is an hourly foundation for laughter [...] ever since my first reading of Pamela, he puts in for a right to be one of her hearers; and, having got half her sayings by heart, talks in no other language but hers; and what really surprises, and has charmed me into a certain foretaste of her influence, he is, at once, become fond of his books, which (before) he could never be brought to attend to -- that he may read Pamela, he says, without stopping. The first discovery we made of this power, over so unripe and unfixed an attention, was one evening, when I was reading her reflections at the pond to some company. The little rampant intruder [...] had crept under my chair, and was sitting before me on the carpet [...] on a sudden we heard a succession of heart-wrenching sobs, which, while he strove to conceal from our notice, his little sides swelled as though they would burst [...] All the ladies in the company were ready to devour him with kisses, and he has since become doubly a favourite, and is, perhaps, the youngest of Pamela's conquests.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Aaron Hill Print: Book
Aaron Hill to Samuel Richardson, 15 October 1741:
'A thousand thanks are due to you for the two delightful sheets of Pamela, part II. Where will your wonders end? [goes on to praise text further]'
Unknown
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Aaron Hill
[?Sarah] Fielding to Samuel Richardson, 6 July 1754:
'Here are a set of young women endued with the most exemplary patience I ever met with; for Miss L---- and Miss B---- agree'd to read Sir Charles Grandison together, and really waited from time to time till they could meet, each honourably performing their covenant, and not so much as taking one unlawful peep in the absence of the other.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: 'Miss L----' and 'Miss B----' Print: Book
Margaret Collier to Samuel Richardson, from Ryde, 31 December 1755:
'My good old folks were desirous that I should read Clarissa to them, which gave me a fourth time the pleasure of going through that admirable work; they never read it nor heard of it till now, and are so delighted, and so interested for your beloved sweet girl [i.e. character Clarissa], that you cannot imagine what a new entertainment it is to me to hear the remarks, and the observations they make, and this from minds so innocent and ignorant of the world as they seem.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Margaret Collier Print: Book
Margaret Collier to Samuel Richardson, from Ryde, 31 December 1755:
'My good old folks were desirous that I should read Clarissa to them, which gave me a fourth time the pleasure of going through that admirable work; they never read it nor heard of it till now, and are so delighted, and so interested for your beloved sweet girl [i.e. character Clarissa], that you cannot imagine what a new entertainment it is to me to hear the remarks, and the observations they make, and this from minds so innocent and ignorant of the world as they seem.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Margaret Collier Print: Book
Margaret Collier to Samuel Richardson, from Ryde, 11 February 1756:
'My good old folks --you can't think how I love them! -- the more I believe, because they hearken with such attention and admiration to Clarissa and Sir Charles Grandison, which latter I have now begun to them [sic]. They believe both Clarissa and Sir Charles to be real stories, and no work of imagination, and I don't care to undeceive them. The good man is more than three score, he believes [...] They love each other, and the husband rejoices in the balance of sense being of her side, which it is, in some degree, and glories in her being able to read and write, which he can scarcely do.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Margaret Collier Print: Book
Colley Cibber to Samuel Richardson, 30 March 1748
[comments in detail, with page references, on passages in latest instalment of Clarissa, before remarking]:
'I have got through 210 pages [of volume 3] with a continual resolution to give every occasional beauty its laudable remark; but they grow too thick and strong upon me, to give me that agreeable leisure. I read a course of full five hours and a half, without drawing bit (as the jockeys call it); in which time my attention has got the better of my approbation, which all the while longed to tell you how I liked it [goes on to comment further in detail, apparently breaking off and resuming letter to read, and report on, successive passages of text]'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Colley Cibber Print: Book
Colley Cibber to Samuel Richardson, 6 June 1753, following visit to Richardson on 3 June 1753:
'The delicious meal I made of Miss Byron on Sunday last, has given me an appetite for another slice of her, off from the spit before she is served up to the public table.'
Unknown
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Colley Cibber
Colley Cibber to Samuel Richardson, 27 May 1750:
'I have just finished the sheets [of Clarissa] you favoured me with [...] I have not patience, till I know what's become of her [...] What piteous, d----d, disgraceful, pickle have you plunged her in? For God's sake send me the sequel [...] My girls are all on fire and fright to know what can possibly become of her.'
Unknown
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Colley Cibber
J. Duncombe, of Benet College, Cambridge, to Samuel Richardson, 15 October 1751:
'Mr Graham is not in Cambridge; but his brother is, who is [...] very ingenious, and expressed a great desire to be acquainted with you,as he already thoroughly is with your writings [...] The short epigram which Mr Graham sent you was wrote by himself, and is much liked here, because we think it partakes of the sublime simplicity of the ancients.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Graham Print: Book
J. Channing to Samuel Richardson, 31 October 1748:
'I returned your papers on Saturday, with sincere thanks, myself very truly affected with them. I had attended the last moments of your heroine [Clarissa] with such emotions of soul, as every unsteeled reader must experience.'
Unknown
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: J. Channing
Elizabeth Carter to Catherine Talbot, 4 March 1751:
'You need not make any apologies about my Rambler [No. 100]. I had no idea when I sent it to you that it was worth a second reading [...] Having honestly told you my humility, I will now, with equal honesty, tell you my vanity, that upon the whole it pleases me better than Mr Richardson's Rambler [identified by source ed. as probably No. 97]. Do you like that Paper? and will you be angry with me for not liking it at all? I cannot see how some of his doctrines can be founded on any other supposition than that Providence designed one half of the human species for idiots and slaves. One would think the man was, in this respect, a Mahometan.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Serial / periodical
Catherine Talbot to Elizabeth Carter, in response to Carter's attack on the perceived misogyny of Richardson's 'Rambler' essay:
'Fie upon you! indeed I see no harm in that poor Paper, and must own myself particularly fond of it. He does not pretend to give a scheme (not an entire scheme) of female education, only to say how when well educated they should behave, in opposition to the racketing life of the Ranelagh-education misses of these our days. Do read it over again a little candidly. How can you imagine that the author of Clarissa has not an idea enough of what women may be, and ought to be?'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Catherine Talbot Print: Serial / periodical
Elizabeth Carter to Catherine Talbot, 24 March 1751:
'Well according to your advice I have given Mr Richardson another reading, and confess myself to have been too much prejudiced both by the opinions of those who read it before me, and from some of his own notions which I had lately seen on another subject, and that the Paper itself, if my head had not been full of those when I read it, might have appeared to much greater advantage.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Serial / periodical
'Please, if you have not, and I don’t suppose you have, already read it, institute a search in all Melbourne for one of the rarest and certainly one of the best of books − [italics]Clarissa Harlowe[end italics]. For any man who takes an interest in the problem of the two sexes, that book is a perfect mine of documents. And it is written, sir, with the pen of an angel. Miss Howe and Lovelace, words cannot tell how good they are! And the scene where Clarissa beards her family, with her fan going all the while; and some of the quarrel scenes between her and Lovelace; and the scene where Colonel Marsden goes to Mr Hall, with Lord M. trying to compose matters, and the Colonel with his eternal "finest woman in the world", and the inimitable affirmation of Mowbray − nothing could be better! You will bless me when you read it for this recommendation; but, indeed, I can do nothing but recommend [italics]Clarissa[end italics].'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Book
Catherine Talbot to Elizabeth Carter, 23 December 1751:
'Do you know the Grandison family? [...] Oh, Miss Carter, did you ever call Pigmalion a fool, for making an image and falling in love with it -- and do you know that you and I are two Pigmalionesses? Did not Mr Richardson ask us for some traits of his good man's character? And did not we give him some? And has he not gone and put these and his own charming ideas into a book and formed a Sir Charles Grandison? [...] I have seen some parts of this amiable book, but I tell you this as a profound secret, which I have not named even to Lady Grey, who is therefore much puzzled why we cannot find time to read Amelia, when she knows we read en famille after supper.'
Unknown
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Catherine Talbot
Catherine Talbot to Elizabeth Carter, on life at Cuddesdon, 8 September 1753:
'Our days here pass too pleasantly to want any foreign enlivening [...] country scenes, charming weather, agreeable companions, and every evening an hour's reading en famille of Sir C. Grandison.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Catherine Talbot and family Print: Book
Elizabeth Carter to Catherine Talbot, 21 September 1753:
'Mr Richardson has been so good as to send me four volumes of his most charming work, and I heartily wish, for his sake as well as their own, that all the world may be as fond of it as I am [comments further].'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Carter Print: Book
[Thomas Edwards to Samuel Richardson, 26 January 1749:]
'I find, dear Sir, that if I put off my acknowledgements to the author of the divine Clarissa till I can meet with words that will fully express what I think and feel on that subject, I must for ever seem either insensible or ungrateful [...] Whether it be a milkiness of blood in me, as Shakespeare calls it, I know not, but I have never felt so much distress in my life as I have done for that dear girl [comments further]'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Edwards Print: Book
[Thomas Edwards to Samuel Richardson, 31 March 1753:]
'I cannot help mentioning to you, because I know it will give you pleasure, the good fortune that has fallen to one of your pretty disciples in my neighbourhood, who is a great admirer of Clarissa. She is the daughter of a yeoman near me [goes on to tell how the young woman has been married to "a gentleman in possession of a very handsome estate, and who will have a greater"] [...] Her neatness, modesty, and sweetness of temper, often put me in mind of your Pamela in her single state: but when I visited them lately on their marriage, the likeness was extremely striking [...] the same unaffected humility towards those whom she was now raised to a level with, and that sort of awful regard for her benefactor which you so finely paint in that amiable character, were truly exemplified here. The gentleman, like Mr. B., has the majority against him on this occasion; but he is contented rather to be happy than fashionable.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: anon Print: Book
[Thomas Edwards to Samuel Richardson, 28 January 1754, on his return home from a stay in London:]
'I have not been a fort'n-night [sic] at home. The contrast between my late situation, happy in the enjoyment of the company of my friends, and my present solitary circumstances, was too strong for me not to want something to compensate the difference. I therefore called Sir Charles Grandison to my assistance; for the conversation I had with him at Ember and in town was so broken and interrupted that it had by no means satisfied my longing. And what was the consequence? Why, just the fable of the horse and the man: he whom I called in for an ally became my master, and made me spend with him every leisure hour I could command, till I had again gone through the five books; and had they been fifteen, I must have done so.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Edwards Print: Book
[Thomas Edwards to Samuel Richardson, 19 December 1754:]
'Think not that I can be easily satisfied without your company: I have it in those excellent works which do honour to the present age, and are a great alleviation of my solitude [...] Pamela I have lately read, and begun upon Clarissa, and I must still say, the more I read the more I admire.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Edwards Print: Book
[Thomas Edwards to Samuel Richardson, 19 December 1754:]
'Think not that I can be easily satisfied without your company: I have it in those excellent works which do honour to the present age, and are a great alleviation of my solitude [...] Pamela I have lately read, and begun upon Clarissa, and I must still say, the more I read the more I admire.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Edwards Print: Book
[Thomas Edwards to Samuel Richardson, 15 January 1755:]
'Your works are an inexhaustible fund of entertainment and instruction. I have been this day weeping over the seventh volume of Clarissa, as if I had attended her dying bed, and assisted at her funeral procession. O may my latter end be like hers!'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Edwards Print: Book
[Sarah Scudamore (nee Westcomb) to Samuel Richardson, 12 March 1758:]
'I've lately read over my oracle (Pamela) again, and already made use of some of Mr Locke's maxims, made clear and plain by her, upon my little boy, which I highly approve, and intend strictly to adhere to.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Scudamore Print: Book
[Anne Donnellan to Samuel Richardson, 14 July 1750:]
'I have received infinite pleasure, and something better, from the collection of sublime sentences which you have so ably made the divine Clarissa apply to in her deepest distresses.
'I am also much obliged to you for the little book, which seems composed with a pious spirit;
but I own calling them Psalms disappointed me. I never met with any composition, either as
paraphrase or imitation of those divine compositions, that I liked; they come so infinitely short
of the true sublime, that I should rather chuse a mere human composition in any other shape.
'I must also thank you for the canons of Mr Warburton's antagonist, which I had read before I
left London, but forgot to return you [sic]. They made me laugh: a great merit to us splenetic
folks!'
Unknown
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Donnellan
[Anne Donnellan to Samuel Richardson, 14 July 1750:]
'I have admired Clarissa, and wept with her. I have loved Miss Howe, and execrated Lovelace with her; and a little despised Mr Hickman. I have shook with horror and resentment at Lovelace and all his crew. I have detested the whole Harlowe family. In short, I am thoroughly acquainted with them all, and have had every passion and affection raised in me by them.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Donnellan Print: Book
[Mrs] A. Dewes to Samuel Richardson, 24 September 1750:
'[My sister] and the Dean both have the highest regard for you and all your works. I rejoice at every addition you make to Clarissa [...] I can't help wishing you would publish Clarissa's meditiations, as they must be of great use and pleasure to all who read them; and the few friends to whom I have shewed those you favoured me with, are greatly pleased with them, especially Lady Anne Coventry, aunt to the Duke of Beaufort, a lady of singular piety and religion [...] a widow [...] She is also near fourscore, but enjoys health, and all the faculties of her mind in full vigour; employs them in goodness and ingenuity, and is very fond of Clarissa.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: '[Mrs A. Dewes's] sister and the Dean' Print: Book
Anne Donnellan to Samuel Richardson, 9 November 1752:
'I should talk a little of the pleasure I had had in reading some of your last scenes [...] I have made some little marks in the books I had, and as you seem to desire to shorten, I have in some places thrown out words that I thought did not strengthen the sense, &c. &c. [comments further on aspects of characterisations etc] [...] I had wrote thus far, when I recollected I was writing down my own scattered incoherent thoughts, when I had a new book of yours to read; so down went the pen, and I never quitted your book till I finished it (nine o'clock at night). I have run over it very quick, from my own eagerness, and your desire of having it soon, and
can only say, my dear Mr Richardson, do not marry the angel Clementina to the hare-brained Count de Belvidere.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Donnellan Manuscript: Unknown
Patrick Delany to Samuel Richardson, 20 December 1753:
'I have begun a second time with Sir Charles Grandison, and assure you, in the main, I am better pleased with it than I was upon the first reading it; and yet now and then a little objection starts up before me, which I think it the part of a friend to communicate with an honest openness. I was offended with three words, [italics]leer[end italics], [italics]ogle[end italics], and [italics]stare[end italics], to which I am sure I shall never be reconciled, at least from the mouth of a fair lady, as they are there used [comments further on text].'
Unknown
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Patrick Delany
[From ed. notes:]
'[Samuel Richardson's] correspondence with Lady [Dorothy] Bradshaigh began in the following manner: -- A lady, calling herself Belfour, wrote to the author of Clarissa, after reading the first four volumes, acquainting him that a report prevailed, that The History of Clarissa was to end in a most tragical manner, and, expressing her abhorrence of such a catastrophe, begged to be satisfied of the truth by a few lines inserted in the Whitehall Evening Post. -- Mr Richardson complied with her request; in consequence of which many letters passed between them.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Dorothy Lady Bradshaigh Print: Book
[Dorothy, Lady Bradshaigh (as 'Mrs Belfour') to Samuel Richardson (letter undated):]
'Just as I was sending this to the post, your fifth volume came to my hand [...] I long to read it -- and yet I dare not. But I have a kind friend who will first look it over [...] [he] is willing to save me pain, though at the expence of suffering it himself. If I find the dreaded horrid act is not perpetrated, I will promise to read it [...]
'O, Sir! I have been prevailed upon to read a part of your story [i.e. Lovelace's drugging and rape of Clarissa], that I thought would have torn my heart in a thousand pieces. You have drawn a villain above nature; and you make that villain a sensible man, with many good qualities, and you have declared him not an unbeliever. Indeed, Sir, I am more out of conceit with your scheme than ever; it must do harm, indeed it must. What will any villain care what becomes of a Clarissa, when he has gained his horrid ends, which you have taught him how to gain [...] it is too shocking and barbarous a story for publication [...] Blot out but one night,
and the villainous laudanum, and all may be well again.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Dorothy Lady Bradshaigh Print: Book
[Dorothy, Lady Bradshaigh (as 'Mrs Belfour') to Samuel Richardson, 11 January [1748/9], on completing reading of final three volumes of Clarissa:]
'I have, Sir, with much pain, much greater than you imagine, gone through your inimitable piece [...] It must be acknowledged by every body a noble work [...]
'I once intended to point out, and take notice, as I went along, of what I thought particular beauties, but they came so thick upon me, that I found it would be an endless piece of work [...] Besides, I am conscious I have not strength of judgement for such an undertaking; more especially at present, being every way weakened by reading your most moving relation [discusses responses to text (including copious weeping and disturbed sleep) further].'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Dorothy Lady Bradshaigh Print: Book
