The thirtieth book: #30 Clarissa - Samuel Richardson
If you wondered why it's been a while since I covered a book (but why would you) this is the reason: I was reading the longest book in the English language.
It hasn't been smooth sailing. To be able to get myself through, I split my reading into two parts. The morning commute was for Clarissa. The afternoon was for comics or another diversion. A bit cheap, but it worked.
As I said before, epistolaries aren't my thing, and as the book that follows up on Pamela - not as the character, but as Samuel Richardson further developing his style and writing a book from a similar foundation, but taking a different twist. While Clarissa is still an idealised character - everyone has only praise for her, only those who are against her don't (but only once they're made out to be bad people). On the whole, it's still a bit much, but it's not as far over the top as Pamela was.
Switching between viewpoints helped a lot here, with letters from many people in the narrative, though mostly focused on Clarissa, her friend Miss Howe, her lover/antagonist Lovelace and his friend/later Clarissa's friend Bedford. It creates a lot more variation, although some writers get boring in the way they expound on things.
And that's where it falls down for me, really. This book could have used an editor, to remove some of the repetition and some of the explanations that don't go anywhere. While they set the tone, in a book of this length it can feel more like filler and it loses my attention. It's unfortunate, but it was a bit too much a bit too often.