Another thirty pages of Clarissa read through today and only 338 more pages to go!
One of the most astonishing things about the book is the letters. Given it is an epistolary novel, why do I find the letters astonishing? There are a number of reasons.
Foremost is the sheer number of letters that fly about in this book via the post, servants, friends heading in the direction of the recipient. Without telephones or computers or even telegraphs, letters were the primary means of communication over distances. But even when Clarissa is at home and happy she and her friend Anna exchange letters almost daily and they live in the same town and see each other frequently.
The letters exchanged are not often short notes either, they are generally quite long. The amount of time spent writing letters everyday must have been hours. I suppose without all the distractions that we have today, there may have been hours to fill especially if you were part of the upper classes and didn’t have to work. And, it seems, the letters sent were second drafts, or clean copies. On top of that, it is not uncommon in Clarissa for copies of letters from other people to be sent along with one’s own letter. Perhaps it is because of the amount of time involved that everyone in the book is always thanking their correspondent for their “favour,” something that refers both to the letter received and, I think, to the gift of time and attention spent in writing it.
The culture surrounding letters is fascinating. Letters were entirely private and no one had the right to ask you what was in one or to read one without your express permission. To violate this, especially the reading of a letter, is an unforgivable trespass into a person’s privacy. Lovelace has a maid steel some of Clarissa’s letters on several occasions. He has the maid copy the letters and return them so Clarissa will not be the wiser. As if that is not bad enough, he also intercepts some of the letters between Clarissa and Anna and has the nerve to forge a couple from Anna, keeping the originals. Given the familiarity between the two women, I am surprised Clarissa never noticed anything suspect about the forged letters. Nevertheless, Lovelace’s interfering with Clarissa’s letters is presented as a very low and wicked thing to do, damning evidence of just how bad he is.
At the same time letters were private, they are also public. Whole or parts of letters get read aloud to other people or, as I mentioned earlier, copied into other letters. This goes far to explain why the letters, so private and intimate, are written in such a formal tone. Always there is a salutation and a signature, often the writer’s full name. Clarissa addresses her letters to Anna “Dear Miss Howe” or “My Dearest Miss Howe.” She signs them “Clarissa Harlowe.” Though on a rare occasion she will sign “C. H.” The body of the letter too is fairly formal. No slang and all politeness. It as though the writer is paying a visit on paper to the drawing room of the recipient. But just as things go on below the surface of a drawing room conversation, so too are there things that go on below the surface of these formal-mannered letters.
Letter writers also kept all correspondence received. I would love to know where and how they kept them as I can only imagine drawers and chests overflowing with missives. The most effective way of breaking a friendship/aquaintance/correspondence is to return all the letters someone sent you. Lovelace is furious when Clarissa returns to him all of his letters. But he refuses to accept the gesture as a termination of connection and continues to make plans on how he might gain entrance to Clarissa’s rooms.
I wanted to find out a little about the history and culture of letter writing for this post but there is so much out there I couldn’t even begin to delve in to it. I can say there are lots of Google results that bemoan the decline of letter writing. And I found myself wondering if the people who make the most noise about the disappearance of letters write letters themselves?
With the ease and speed of communication these days it is oh so easy to forego letter writing in lieu of a phone call or email and I am as guilty of going for convenience as the next person. Still, I currently have three correspondents and I value their letters greatly and keep them all (very unorganized in two plastic totes), my grandma, my childhood friend Alicia whom I have known since I was six, and my first college roommate, aptly named Clarissa. It is sometimes weeks or months between letters, but truly, what a “favour” when one arrives.
There are three books I found on letter writing that seem worth exploring:
- Early Modern Women’s Letter Writing, 1450-1700, edited by James Daybell
- Studies in the Cultural History of Letter Writing edited by Linda C. Mitchell and Susan Green
- The Culture of Epistolarity: Vernacular Letters and Letter Writing in Early Modern England, 1500-1700 by Gary Schneider
Thet are all so expensive I hope to find at least one at the library. In the meantime, there are some internet links to explore.
I still exchange letters (or rather, cards) with my aunt, but otherwise everyone has switched to email. It’s definitely not the same. I too have a stash of old letters and its fun to look through them sometimes. The main difference, I think, is that you know the other person touched that piece of paper. Email is completely abstracted from the world of physicality, and so I think it has less impact than a letter. I wonder if letter-writing will ever make a come-back?
I love receiving the occasional hand-written letter, but alas, it’s been years since I wrote one myself. I think about it from time to time, but never seem to put pen to paper…
Me again. I just remembered a scene from the “Wives and Daughters” (Elizabeth Gaskell) BBC mini-series. One of the female characters allows another to read a letter from her fiancé, but only part of it, pointing out the portion, “from here to here”.
I have only a couple of correspondents left, but I value their letters highly. I have been guilty in recent years of emailing more than writing, although I simply love stationery and pens and envelopes and stamps…. ok, I must go write a proper letter!
I remember reading some academic analysis of Clarissa which pointed out that she would have had to spend a minimum of eight hourse every day writing, if she were in fact to produce the volume of correspondence that Richardson claims she does!
Wonderful post, Stefanie – full of insight and interest.
Aren’t those letters amazing! Litlove’s comment made me laugh — yes, it would be nearly impossible to write that much! I don’t write letters anymore, which is a little sad — I have the letters I wrote in the past, but I don’t print out emails, even though some of them are long and involved. So they are lost! (Or maybe not? Are emails ever lost?). Anyway, while I don’t want to give up email, it is a little sad not to write letters anymore.
Sylvia, I think letter writing will never make a comeback like it used to be. There will always be some people who write letters and maybe if the “slow” movement expands a bit the number of letter writers will increase slightly. Sadly, though, I think it really is a lost art.
wil, I think you are not alone in enjoying a letter but never getting around to writing one. And what an excellent letter example! I’m not sure if someone said read from here to here that I would not be able to keep my eyes from straying!
Melanie, I am with you. I love paper and pens–I have a couple of fountain pens and bottles of different colored ink. I like to make letter writing an experience.
Litlove, thanks. I believe that it would take 8 hours minimum. Clarissa is always writing and other characters comment, sometimes derisively, on how much she writes. Her output is rather extraordinary.
Dorothy, they are amazing. I was concerned about losing email correspondence so I now have various folders into which I save email “letters.” It’s not the same as a box full of paper letters, but it is a lot tidier and dust-free
A few weeks ago I read an article on The Guardian where they wrote about how today, writer letter exchanges might be forever lost precisely because they don’t write each other letters anymore. Imagine two great authors in communication through email… these documents won’t be preserved because when they die, who will have access to them? It’s not the same as finding a little bundle of folded papers in a secret drawer. What if these authors decide to “clean up their inbox”… so much will be lost.
I hope that writers are packrats and do backups and leave their passwords on a post it somewhere or the epistolary genre will forever disappear.
Thanks for the links, this is a really interesting topic, and one I’ve thought about, too. But I never questioned the reason for the formal language I’m so used to in letters of the past–and never thought about the fact that they used to be more of a public document…so, much food for thought–thanks!
Luisa, it is sad to think about what you describe. I hope writers are packrats too. It would be a great loss if writer’s letters should disappear because they were digital.
Gentle Reader, letter writing is one of my favorite topics too though I have never done much in the way of researching it. That may soon change though
I used to Love writing and receiving letters. I had all sorts of correspondents that I have lost touch with, and which I think that is a real pity–I wish I knew what their lives were like now!! I am one of those people who bemoan the infrequency of letter writing, but I am also now a terrible letter writer. From working on a computer, my once fairly neat handwriting has turned so messy as to not even be legible at times!! Can you imagine getting mail not just once a day, but there was enough of it that there were two deliveries? Unimaginable now!
Have you seen this?:
http://www.corkscrewmedia.net/shows/pages/the_letters.html
It’s a show where men vye for the affections of a woman by writing letters!
Danielle, I had five foreign pen pals when I was a kid and I often wonder what ever happened to them. My handwriting is not as good as it used to be either. I can’t imagine multiple mail deliveries in a day especially since most of my mail now is junk and bills!
Sylvia, now that’s a TV show! I wonder how it went since filming just finished?
I saw a bit of it and it’s not particularly profound, but it’s still a cool idea. Perhaps I should give it another chance and report back.
It is a cool idea. But the letter writers would have to be interesting and creative to make the thing work otherwise it’s just another soap opera. if you do watch it again, please report back
I came over here from blogged.com because I was looking for more letter writing blogs? What a great book review you have done and now with all these letter writers posting here I feel like I’ve found a lot of kindred spirits.
I’ll be sending some of my folks over here to read the review!
Thanks for such a great site!
Oh, I remembered one other thing… the part where you’re talking about people passing on letters. My grandmother wrote copious amounts of letters DAILY and was a faithful correspondent.
She’d get letters and she’d tear out the sections she thought someone would be interested in and then write her own commentary in the margins in a different color and then include them in with her letter she was sending to someone else.
We never knew where our mail would end up once it got to her. Always an adventure!
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Wendy, welcome and thank you! What a fantastic story about your grandmother. And what a treasure he letters must be!