LETTER I. Clarissa to Miss Howe.--Another visit from her aunt and
sister. The latter spitefully insults her with the patterns. A tender
scene between her aunt and her in Arabella's absence. She endeavours to
account for the inflexibility of her parents and uncles.
LETTER II. Miss Howe to Clarissa.--Humourous description of Mr. Hickman.
Imagines, from what Lovelace, Hickman, and Solmes, are now, what figures
they made when boys at school.
LETTER III. From the same.--Useful observations on general life. Severe
censures of the Harlowe family, for their pride, formality, and other
bad qualities.
LETTER IV. From the same.--Mr. Hickman's conversation with two of
Lovelace's libertine companions.
LETTER V. From the same.--An unexpected visit from Mr. Lovelace. What
passes in it. Repeats her advice to her to resume her estate.
LETTER VI. VII. VIII. Clarissa to Miss Howe.--Farther particulars of the
persecutions she receives from her violent brother.
LETTER IX. From the same.--Impertinence of Betty Barnes. Overhears her
brother and sister encourage Solmes to persevere in his address. She
writes warmly to her brother upon it.
LETTER X. From the same.--Receives a provoking letter from her sister.
Writes to her mother. Her mother's severe reply. Is impatient. Desires
Miss Howe's advice what course to pursue. Tries to compose her angry
passions at her harpsichord. An Ode to Wisdom, by a Lady.
LETTER XI. Clarissa to Miss Howe.--Chides her for misrepresenting Mr.
Hickman. Fully answers her arguments about resuming her estate. Her
impartiality with regard to what Miss Howe says of Lovelace, Solmes, and
her brother. Reflections on revenge and duelling.
LETTER XII. Miss Howe to Clarissa.--Sir Harry Downeton's account of what
passed between himself and Solmes. She wishes her to avoid both men.
Admires her for her manifold excellencies.
LETTER XIII. Clarissa to Miss Howe.--Why she cannot overcome her
aversion to Solmes. Sharp letter to Lovelace. On what occasion. All his
difficulties, she tells him, owning to his faulty morals; which level
all distinction. Insists upon his laying aside all thoughts of her. Her
impartial and dutiful reasonings on her difficult situation.
LETTER XIV. Miss Howe to Clarissa.--A notable debate between her and her
mother on her case. Those who marry for love seldom so happy as those
who marry for convenience. Picture of a modern marriage. A lesson both
to parents and children in love-cases. Handsome men seldom make good
husbands. Miss Howe reflects on the Harlowe family, as not famous for
strictness in religion or piety. Her mother's partiality for Hickman.
LETTER XV. Clarissa to Miss Howe.--Her increased apprehensions.
Warmly defends her own mother. Extenuates her father's feelings; and
expostulates with her on her undeserved treatment of Mr. Hickman. A
letter to her from Solmes. Her spirited answer. All in an uproar about
it. Her aunt Hervey's angry letter to her. She writes to her mother. Her
letter returned unopened. To her father. He tears her letter in pieces,
and sends it back to her. She then writes a pathetic letter to her uncle
Harlowe.
LETTER XVI. From the same.--Receives a gentler answer than she expected
from her uncle Harlowe. Makes a new proposal in a letter to him, which
she thinks must be accepted. Her relations assembled upon it. Her
opinion of the sacrifice which a child ought to make to her parents.
LETTER XVII. From the same.--She tells her that the proposal she had
made to her relations, on which she had built so much, is rejected.
Betty's saucy report upon it. Her brother's provoking letter to her.
Her letter to her uncle Harlowe on the occasion. Substance of a letter
excusatory from Mr. Lovelace. He presses for an interview with her in
the garden.
LETTER XVIII. Clarissa to Miss Howe.--Her uncle's angry answer.
Substance of a humble letter from Mr. Lovelace. He has got a violent
cold and hoarseness, by his fruitless attendance all night in the
coppice. She is sorry he is not well. Makes a conditional appointment
with him for the next night, in the garden. Hates tyranny in all shapes.
LETTER XIX. From the same.--A characteristic dialogue with the pert
Betty Barnes. Women have great advantage over men in all the powers that
relate to the imagination. Makes a request to her uncle Harlowe, which
is granted, on condition that she will admit of a visit from Solmes. She
complies; and appoints that day sevennight. Then writes to Lovelace
to suspend the intended interview. Desires Miss Howe to inquire into
Lovelace's behaviour at the little inn he puts up at in his way to
Harlowe-Place.
LETTER XX. From the same.--Receives a letter from Lovelace, written
in very high terms, on her suspending the interview. Her angry answer.
Resolves against any farther correspondence with him.
LETTER XXI. Miss Howe to Clarissa.--Humourous account of her mother and
Mr. Hickman in their little journey to visit her dying cousin. Rallies
her on her present displeasure with Lovelace.
LETTER XXII. Mr. Hickman to Mrs. Howe.--Resenting Miss Howe's treatment
of him.
LETTER XXIII. Mrs. Howe. In answer.
LETTER XXIV. Miss Howe to Clarissa.--Observes upon the contents of her
seven last letters. Advises her to send all the letters and papers she
would not have her relations see; also a parcel of clothes, linen, &c.
Is in hopes of procuring an asylum for her with her mother, if things
come to extremity.
LETTER XXV. Clarissa to Miss Howe.--Requisites of true satire. Rejoices
in the hopes she gives of her mother's protection. Deposits a parcel
of linen, and all Lovelace's letters. Useful observations relating to
family management, and to neatness of person and dress. Her contrivances
to amuse Betty Barnes.
LETTER XXVI. Miss Howe to Clarissa.--Result of her inquiry after
Lovelace's behaviour at the inn. Doubts not but he has ruined the
innkeeper's daughter. Passionately inveighs against him.
LETTER XXVII. Clarissa. In answer.--Is extremely alarmed at Lovelace's
supposed baseness. Declares her abhorrence of him.
LETTER XXVIII. Miss Howe to Clarissa.--Lovelace, on inquiry, comes out
to be not only innocent with regard to his Rosebud, but generous. Miss
Howe rallies her on the effects this intelligence must have upon her
generosity.
LETTER XXIX. Clarissa. In reply.--Acknowledges her generosity engaged
in his favour. Frankly expresses tenderness and regard for him; and owns
that the intelligence of his supposed baseness had affected her more
than she thinks it ought. Contents of a letter she has received from
him. Pities him. Writes to him that her rejection of Solmes is not in
favour to himself; for that she is determined to hold herself free
to obey her parents, (as she had offered to them,) of their giving up
Solmes. Reproaches him for his libertine declarations in all companies
against matrimony. Her notions of filial duty, notwithstanding the
persecutions she meets with.
LETTER XXX. Miss Howe to Clarissa.--Her treatment of Mr. Hickman on his
intrusion into her company. Applauds Clarissa for the generosity of her
spirit, and the greatness of her mind.
LETTER XXXI. Clarissa to Miss Howe.--Dr. Lewen makes her a formal visit.
Affected civility of her brother and sister to her. Is visited by her
uncle Harlowe: and by her sister. She penetrates the low art designed in
this change of their outward behaviour. Substance of Lovelace's reply
to her last. He acknowledges his folly for having ever spoken lightly of
matrimony.
LETTER XXXII. From the same.--Another letter from Mr. Lovelace, in
which he expresses himself extremely apprehensive of the issue of
her interview with Solmes. Presses her to escape; proposes means for
effecting it; and threatens to rescue her by violence, if they attempt
to carry her to her uncle Antony's against her will. Her terror on the
occasion. She insists, in her answer, on his forbearing to take any rash
step; and expresses herself highly dissatisfied that he should think
himself entitled to dispute her father's authority in removing her to
her uncle's. She relies on Mrs. Howe's protection till her cousin Morden
arrives.
LETTER XXXIII. Clarissa to Miss Howe.--A visit from her aunt Hervey,
preparative to the approaching interview with Solmes. Her aunt tells her
what is expected on her having consented to that interview.
LETTER XXXIV. XXXV. From the same.--A particular account of what passed
in the interview with Solmes; and of the parts occasionally taken in
it by her boisterous uncle, by her brutal brother, by her implacable
sister, and by her qualifying aunt. Her perseverance and distress. Her
cousin Dolly's tenderness for her. Her closet searched for papers. All
the pens and ink they find taken from her.
LETTER XXXVI. From the same.--Substance of a letter from Lovelace. His
proposals, promises, and declarations. All her present wish is, to be
able to escape Solmes, on one hand, and to avoid incurring the disgrace
of refuging with the family of a man at enmity with her own, on the
other. Her emotions behind the yew-hedge on seeing her father going into
the garden. Grieved at what she hears him say. Dutiful message to
her mother. Harshly answered. She censures Mr. Lovelace for his rash
threatenings to rescue her. Justifies her friends for resenting them;
and condemns herself for corresponding with him at first.
LETTER XXXVII. Miss Howe to Clarissa.--Is vexed at the heart to be
obliged to tell her that her mother refuses to receive and protect her.
Offers to go away privately with her.
LETTER XXXVIII. Clarissa to Miss Howe.--Her disinterested arguments in
Mrs. Howe's favour, on her refusal to receive her. All her consolation
is, that her unhappy situation is not owing to her own inadvertence of
folly. Is afraid she is singled out, either for her own faults, or for
those of her family, or perhaps for the faults of both, to be a very
unhappy creature. Justifies the ways of Providence, let what will befal
her: and argues with exemplary greatness of mind on this subject. Warmly
discourages Miss Howe's motion to accompany her in her flight.
LETTER XXXIX. Clarissa to Miss Howe.--Further instances of her
impartiality in condemning Lovelace, and reasoning for her parents.
Overhears her brother and sister exulting in the success of their
schemes; and undertaking, the one to keep his father up to his
resentment on occasion of Lovelace's menaces, the other her mother.
Exasperated at this, and at what her aunt Hervey tells her, she writes
to Lovelace, that she will meet him the following Monday, and throw
herself into the protection of the ladies of his family.
LETTER XL. From the same.--Her frightful dream. Now that Lovelace has
got her letter, she repents her appointment.
LETTER XLI. From the same.--Receives a letter from Mr. Lovelace, full
of transport, vows, and promises. He presumes upon her being his on her
getting away, though she has not given him room for such hopes. In her
answer she tells him, 'that she looks not upon herself as absolutely
bound by her appointment: that there are many points to be adjusted
between them (were she to leave her father's house) before she can give
him particular encouragement: that he must expect she will do her utmost
to procure a reconciliation with her father, and his approbation of
her future steps.' All her friends are to be assembled on the following
Wednesday: she is to be brought before them. How to be proceeded with.
Lovelace, in his reply, asks pardon for writing to her with so much
assurance; and declares his entire acquiescence with her will and
pleasure.
LETTER XLII. From the same.--Confirms her appointment; but tells him
what he is not to expect. Promises, that if she should change her mind
as to withdrawing, she will take the first opportunity to see him, and
acquaint him with her reasons. Reflections on what she has done. Her
deep regret to be thus driven.
LETTER XLIII. Miss Howe to Clarissa.--Reasons why she ought to allow her
to accompany her in her flight. Punctilio at an end, the moment she is
out of her father's house. Requisites of friendship. Questions whether
she will not rather choose to go off with one of her own sex than
with Lovelace? And if not, whether she should not marry him as soon as
possible?
LETTER XLIV. Clarissa to Miss Howe, (Miss Howe's last not received.)
Lovelace promises compliance, in every article, with her pleasure.
Her heart misgives her notwithstanding. She knows not but she may yet
recede.
LETTER XLV. From the same. In answer to Letter XLIII.--Reflections
worthy of herself on some of the passages in Miss Howe's last letter.
Gives her home-put questions a full consideration; and determines NOT to
withdraw with Lovelace.
LETTER XLVI. XLVII. From the same.--Substance of her letter to Lovelace,
revoking her appointment. Thinks herself obliged (her letter being not
taken away) as well by promise as in order to prevent mischief, to meet
him, and to give him her reason for revoking.--The hour of meeting now
at hand, she is apprehensive of the contest she shall have with him, as
he will come with a different expectation.
LETTER XLVIII. From the same.--Dated from St. Alban's. Writes in the
utmost anguish of mind for the little parcel of linen she had sent to
her with better hopes. Condemns her own rashness in meeting Lovelace.
Begs her pity and her prayers.