A three-part made-for-tv period drama based on an 18th century novel written by Samuel Richardson has a young woman at the centre of attention of both her family who resent the fact she has recently become the heiress to a large fortune; and the cunning criminal Lovelace who wants to use her to get even with the family whom he despises.
Incredibly compulsive viewing, a tight cast and a beautiful screen adaptation (Janet Barron & David Nokes). Highly recommended for anyone lucky enough to be able to obtain a copy.
Notes printed on the rear of the novel:
Pressured by her unscrupulous family to marry a wealthy man she detests, the young Clarissa Harlowe is tricked into fleeing with the witty and debonair Robert Lovelace and places herself under his protection. Lovelace, however, proves himself to be an untrustworthy rake whose vague promises of marriage are accompanied by unwelcome and increasingly brutal sexual advances. And yet, Clarissa finds his charm alluring, her scrupulous sense of virtue tinged with unconfessed desire. Told through a complex series of interweaving letters, Clarissa is a richly ambiguous study of a fatally attracted couple and a work of astonishing power and immediacy. A huge success when it first appeared in 1747, and translated into French and German, it remains one of the greatest of all European novels.
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