A01=E. Derek Taylor
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Astell's Argument
Author_E. Derek Taylor
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Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=DSB
Catherine Talbot
Clarissa's Death
COP=United States
Damaris Masham
Dead Man
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divine providence in fiction
Divine Socrates
early feminist philosophy
eighteenth-century literature
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Foul Volumes
Grand Children
Harlowe Place
Hester Mulso
Lady Bradshaigh
Language_English
Lockean epistemology critique
Main Characters
Malebranchean theosophy
Nut Brown Maid
PA=Temporarily unavailable
philosophical theology
Price_€100 and above
PS=Active
religious philosophy in English novels
Richardson's Friend
Richardson's Letter
Sarah Chapone
Sinclair's House
softlaunch
Unwelcome Guest
Wesley's Christian Library
Young Man
Product details
- ISBN 9780815391333
- Weight: 490g
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 29 Nov 2017
- Publisher: Taylor & Francis Inc
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
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What distinguishes Clarissa from Samuel Richardson's other novels is Richardson's unique awareness of how his plot would end. In the inevitability of its conclusion, in its engagement with virtually every category of human experience, and in its author's desire to communicate religious truth, the author suggests, Clarissa truly is the Paradise Lost of the eighteenth century. Arguing that Clarissa's cohesiveness and intellectual rigor have suffered from the limitations of the Lockean model frequently applied to the novel, Taylor turns to the writings of John Norris, a well-known disciple of the theosophy of Nicolas Malebranche. Allusions to this first of Locke's philosophical critics appear in each of the novel's installments, and Taylor persuasively documents how Norris's ideas provided Richardson with a usefully un-Lockean rhetorical grounding for Clarissa. Further, the writings of early feminists like Norris's intellectual ally Mary Astell, who viewed her arguments on behalf of women as compatible with her conservative and deeply held religious and political views, provide Richardson with the combination of progressive feminism and conservative theology that animate the novel. In a convincing twist, Taylor offers a closely argued analysis of Lovelace's oft-stated declaration that he will not be 'out-Norris'd' or 'out-plotted' by Clarissa, showing how the plot of the novel and the plot of all humans exist, in the context of Richardson's grand theological experiment, within, through, and by a concurrence of divine energy.
E. Derek Taylor is Professor of English and Modeern Language at the Department of English and Modern Language, Longwood University.
