Clarissa in June

JoAnn @ Lakeside Musing and Terri @ Tip of the Iceberg are hosting a year long group read of Clarissa by Samuel Richardson.
Clarissa is an epistolary novel composed of 537 letters dated from January 10th through to December 18th. The plan is to read the letters around their corresponding dates.

Sometimes I surprise myself! June was the month with the most reading to do and I had moments when I felt it was surely going to be the month when I fell way behind.......but I've made it........I'm still on track. 

Because June is the month when, if ever Clarissa could be called exciting, suspenseful and full of action, this is it! Unfortunately it still has the long-winded, extremely tedious and boring bits that make one's eyes glaze over and want to throw the book out the door. 

Most of the letters are from Lovelace so it's from his perspective the events unfold and continue to reveal the dreadful lengths he's prepared to go to..

" I take the gaining of this lady to be essential to my happiness: and is it not natural for all men to aim at obtaining whatever they think will make them happy, be the object more or less considerable in the yes of others? As to the manner of endeavouring to obtain her, by falsification of oaths, vows and the like -- do not the poets of two thousand years and upwards tell us, that Jupiter laughs at the perjuries of lovers?"

......regardless of time or cost. His plans are so premeditated, so cold and calculating that even his best buddy Belford is appalled and constantly, but to no avail, implores him to spare Clarissa.

Vile hypocrite! Wicked deceiver! Hateful villain! - he deserves every one of the epithets Clarissa hurls at him and more. I have to keep reminding myself how very young she is and how loved and protected she once was. Now she is alone and so vulnerable but her inner strength and courage are such that she never appears as a helpless victim although she has little defense against such an a opponent as Lovelace. I'm emotionally invested in her future now and that is going to carry me through to the end.

Bring on July!