There's a new DVD (though of a 1991 film) of a four-part BBC production
of "Clarissa," from the 18th-century novel by Samuel Richardson.
Lovelace, a nobleman and dedicated rake, obsessively pursues Clarissa, a
bourgeois paragon of moral virtue and therefore the ultimate challenge.
Her greedy, scheming, vindictive brother and sister combine to urge
their parents and wealthy uncle to force Clarissa into marriage with a
rich, ugly airhead. For the first time in her life Clarissa rebels and
eventually has to seek Lovelace's protection. He tries one elaborate
scheme after another to actually get her into bed. And finally . . .
Well, watch it!
Taut, menacing, sensual (with even incestuous overtones in Clarissa's
siblings' relationship), this film is almost as good as "Dangerous
Liasions." And probably a lot better than the novel, which is 1536
pages in the Penguin edition and reputed to be one of the longest novels
in the English language, perhaps _the_ longest. I haven't read it and
I'm not going to, as I gather it gets quite tiresome.
But the film, with the action left in and much of the moralizing
stripped out, is another story.
Fran
Lavolta Press Books on Historic Costuming
http://www.lavoltapress.com
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