Clarissa: The Affair is Over

I have finished reading Clarissa. The last 200 pages were a total slog. As Jeff put it, thinking you have "only" 200 pages left is like driving the 1800 km from Vancouver to Calgary and thinking that you have "only" 300 km to go.


Granted, once Clarissa dies, the narrative slows down. Her death has its own odd momentum. Clarissa lets herself waste away, gradually getting weaker and weaker. While the heroine gets weaker, the suspense increases; you keep reading thinking that she's going to die any page now, and there are a couple of false alarms. Once she does die, Lovelace writes a mad letter demanding that Clarissa's body be cut open and her heart preserved in a jar for him. It's rather gruesome, but an apt continuation of the theme of bodily violation. Clarissa's will addresses this as well, stipulating that her body is not to be opened (autopsied?) in any way. Even past death she's concerned with maintaining bodily integrity.


And here it is in all its flagged glory. I still have to go through them all and make notes. What was I thinking?