Clarissa, or The History of a Young Lady, Volume 1

Audio Sample

Samuel Richardson

Clarissa, or The History of a Young Lady, Volume 1

Read by Lucy Scott, Roger May, Katie Scarfe, Nigel Pilkington, Hayward B. Morse, Anna Bentinck, Paul Panting, Teresa Gallagher, John Foley & Samuel West

unabridged

A milestone in the history of the novel, Samuel Richardson’s epistolary and elaborate Clarissa follows the life of a chaste young woman desperate to protect her virtue. When beautiful Clarissa Harlowe is forced to marry the rich but repulsive Mr Solmes, she refuses, much to her family’s chagrin. She escapes their persecution with the help of Mr Lovelace, a dashing and seductive rake, but soon finds herself in a far worse dilemma. Terrifying and enlightening, Clarissa weaves a tapestry of narrative experimentation into a gripping morality tale of good versus evil. The recording is divided into three volumes.

Running Time: 33 h 38 m

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More product details

Digital ISBN:	978-1-78198-113-9
Cat. no.:	NA0299
Download size:	732 MB
Produced by:	Story Circle
Directed by:	Garrick Hagon and Liza Ross
Edited by:	Wolfgang Dienst
BISAC:	FIC004000
Released:	June 2018

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Lucy Scott

Lucy Scott trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Her stage credits include Emma (Tricycle Theatre), Search and Destroy (New End Theatre) and Mansfield Park (Chichester Festival). Her television credits include Pride and Prejudice (BBC), Rosemary and Thyme (ITV) and Spooks (BBC). She also appeared in the film Tom Brown’s Schooldays with Stephen Fry. She has narrated many audiobooks.

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Titles read by Lucy Scott: Armadale (unabridged); The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie and The Gospel of Wealth (unabridged); Belinda (unabridged); The Blazing World (unabridged); The Book of Margery Kempe (unabridged); Camilla (unabridged); Clarissa, or The History of a Young Lady, Volume 1 (unabridged); Clarissa, or The History of a Young Lady, Volume 2 (unabridged); Clarissa, or The History of a Young Lady, Volume 3 (unabridged); Cousin Bette (unabridged); Dangerous Liaisons (unabridged); Effi Briest (unabridged); Elizabeth and Her German Garden (unabridged); The Enchanted April (unabridged); Far From the Madding Crowd (Educational Edition) (unabridged); Frankenstein (Educational Edition) (unabridged); Fräulein Schmidt and Mr Anstruther (unabridged); The Hound of the Baskervilles (Educational Edition) (unabridged); The Interior Castle (unabridged); The Law and the Lady (unabridged); No Name (unabridged); Romola (unabridged); The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Educational Edition) (unabridged); Vera (unabridged); The Way of Perfection (unabridged); The Well of Loneliness (unabridged); Zofloya, or The Moor (unabridged)

Roger May

Roger May has done over eighty radio plays and spent a year with the BBC Radio Drama Company in 1995–6, following that with a season at the RSC. Amongst his TV appearances are Mosley, Peak Practice and Hornblower and, on film, The Scarlet Tunic and An Ideal Husband.

Titles read by Roger May

Titles read by Roger May: Childhood, Boyhood and Youth (unabridged); Clarissa, or The History of a Young Lady, Volume 1 (unabridged); Clarissa, or The History of a Young Lady, Volume 2 (unabridged); Clarissa, or The History of a Young Lady, Volume 3 (unabridged); Classic Comic Verse (selections); Frankenstein (Educational Edition) (unabridged); Frankenstein (unabridged); Life & Works – Joseph Haydn (unabridged); Henry V (unabridged); Julius Caesar (unabridged); Othello (unabridged); The Professor (unabridged); Selected Poetry by Lewis Carroll (selections); The Time Machine (unabridged)

Katie Scarfe

Katie Scarfe trained at LAMDA. Her theatre credits include The Gathered Leaves (Park Theatre), Mercury Fur (Trafalgar Studios) and Season’s Greetings (Royal National Theatre). Television credits include Emmerdale (ITV) and Holby City (BBC). Radio credits include A Little Twist of Dahl and Someone Like You (BBC Radio 4). She has read over thirty audiobooks, including Revelations of Divine Love (Naxos AudioBooks), Black Rabbit Hall (Penguin Random House), An Unsuitable Job for a Woman (Faber) and The Summer Queen (Hachette).

Titles read by Katie Scarfe

Titles read by Katie Scarfe: Clarissa, or The History of a Young Lady, Volume 1 (unabridged); Clarissa, or The History of a Young Lady, Volume 2 (unabridged); Clarissa, or The History of a Young Lady, Volume 3 (unabridged); The Decameron (unabridged); Revelations of Divine Love (unabridged)

Nigel Pilkington

Nigel Pilkington’s film credits include The Brothers Grimm, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and Thomas & Friends: The Great Race. His television credits include the animations Peter Rabbit (CBeebies), The Jungle Book (CBBC), The Ha Ha Hairies (Cartoonito), Bottle Top Bill (Channel 5), and Teenage Fairytale Dropouts (Telegael). He has also provided character voices for computer games, including Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward, and is a regular on the London and Edinburgh comedy improvisation circuits.

Titles read by Nigel Pilkington

Titles read by Nigel Pilkington: Clarissa, or The History of a Young Lady, Volume 1 (unabridged); Clarissa, or The History of a Young Lady, Volume 2 (unabridged); Clarissa, or The History of a Young Lady, Volume 3 (unabridged); The Decameron (unabridged)

Hayward B. Morse

Hayward B. Morse trained at London’s RADA and has since worked on stage, television and films in Britain, Canada and America. He was in the original stage production of The Rocky Horror Show, the film Death Wish 3 with Charles Bronson and received a Tony Award nomination for his performance in Butley on Broadway opposite Alan Bates.

Titles read by Hayward B. Morse

Titles read by Hayward B. Morse: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (unabridged); Clarissa, or The History of a Young Lady, Volume 1 (unabridged); Clarissa, or The History of a Young Lady, Volume 2 (unabridged); Clarissa, or The History of a Young Lady, Volume 3 (unabridged); Symposium (unabridged)

Anna Bentinck

Anna Bentinck trained at The Arts Educational School and has made over eight hundred broadcasts for BBC radio. Animation voices include the series 64 Zoo Lane, and on TV she has played Mary Dickens in Charles Dickens and Mary Rutherford in the Marie Curie series. Her many audio books range from Lyra’s Oxford by Philip Pullman and A Little Death by Laura Wilson to Queen Victoria by Evelyn Anthony. She has also recorded Five Children and It, The Phoenix and the Carpet and Our Island Story for Naxos AudioBooks.

Titles read by Anna Bentinck

Titles read by Anna Bentinck: The Best Of Our Island Story (abridged); Clarissa, or The History of a Young Lady, Volume 1 (unabridged); Clarissa, or The History of a Young Lady, Volume 2 (unabridged); Clarissa, or The History of a Young Lady, Volume 3 (unabridged); Desperate Remedies (unabridged); Five Children and It (abridged); A Laodicean (unabridged); Our Island Story (complete) (unabridged); Our Island Story – Volume 1 (unabridged); Our Island Story – Volume 2 (unabridged); Our Island Story – Volume 3 (unabridged); A Pair of Blue Eyes (unabridged); The Phoenix and the Carpet (abridged); Silas Marner (unabridged); The Story of the Amulet (abridged); Tess of the d'Urbervilles (unabridged); The Watsons, Sanditon (unabridged)

Paul Panting

Paul Panting trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre. He has worked extensively as a voiceover artist and is featured in many BBC Radio Drama plays and animation series. He is the voice of Peso in The Octonauts, Old Puffer Pete in Chuggington and Muck in Bob The Builder (all CBeebies). His theatre credits include A Better Woman (Marlowe Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (AFTLS), Dark Tales (Edinburgh Pleasance), Witness For The Prosecution (Westcliff Theatre) and Jumping Shoes (White Bear).

Titles read by Paul Panting

Titles read by Paul Panting: Clarissa, or The History of a Young Lady, Volume 1 (unabridged); Clarissa, or The History of a Young Lady, Volume 2 (unabridged); Clarissa, or The History of a Young Lady, Volume 3 (unabridged); Hamlet (unabridged)

Teresa Gallagher

Teresa Gallagher has performed in many leading roles in both plays and musicals across the country, London’s West End and Broadway. In addition, she is a well-known voice to listeners of BBC Radio Drama. Her work on film includes The Misadventures of Margaret and Mike Leigh’s Topsy Turvy. For Naxos AudioBooks she has recorded the Biography of Jane Austen and selections from The Decameron by Boccaccio. She has also read Classic Women’s Short Stories, Heidi, The Treasure Seekers, The Wouldbegoods, The Story of Jesus, and Thailand from after the quake.

Titles read by Teresa Gallagher

Titles read by Teresa Gallagher: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (unabridged); Bleak House (abridged); Bleak House (unabridged); Clarissa, or The History of a Young Lady, Volume 1 (unabridged); Clarissa, or The History of a Young Lady, Volume 2 (unabridged); Clarissa, or The History of a Young Lady, Volume 3 (unabridged); Classic Women’s Short Stories (unabridged); Selections from The Decameron (abridged); The Great Poets – Emily Dickinson (selections); A Family Christmas (unabridged); Heidi (abridged); The History of English Literature (unabridged); The History of Theatre (unabridged); Jane Austen: A Biography (unabridged); Little Lord Fauntleroy (abridged); Life & Works – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (unabridged); New Treasure Seekers (abridged); The Story of Jesus (unabridged); Life & Works – Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky (unabridged); They Saw It Happen (unabridged); Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There (unabridged); The Treasure Seekers (abridged); The Woman in White (abridged); The Woman in White (unabridged); The Wouldbegoods (abridged)

John Foley

John Foley has worked as an actor in theatres throughout the UK and US. He has published reference books and children’s stories, and written and voiced more than 600 scripts for BBC World Service and Radio 4; other radio includes numerous adaptations of works by writers such as Brecht, Ibsen, John Osborne, Alan Bennett and Victoria Wood. He has also produced a number of audiobooks for Naxos AudioBooks and Random House.

Titles read by John Foley

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Samuel West

Samuel West has played Hamlet and Richard II for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Jeffrey Skilling in Enron in the West End and the voice of Pongo in Disney’s 101 Dalmations II. His television credits include W1A (BBC), Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (BBC), Cambridge Spies (BBC) and four series of Mr Selfridge (ITV). He also narrated The Nazis: A Warning from History (BBC). His films include Darkest Hour, On Chesil Beach, Suffragette, Van Helsing and Notting Hill. He was nominated for a BAFTA for Howards End. As a reciter, West was soloist in Walton’s Henry V at the 2002 Last Night of the Proms. Sam has recorded over seventy audiobooks, receiving nine AudioFile Earphones Awards for his narration. He is an Associate Artist of the RSC, a trustee of Belarus Free Theatre and Chair of the National Campaign for the Arts.

Titles read by Samuel West

Titles read by Samuel West: Clarissa, or The History of a Young Lady, Volume 1 (unabridged); Clarissa, or The History of a Young Lady, Volume 2 (unabridged); Clarissa, or The History of a Young Lady, Volume 3 (unabridged); Faust (abridged); Great Narrative Poems of the Romantic Age (unabridged); Great Speeches in History (compilation); Henry V (unabridged); The Great Poets – John Keats (selections); Lady Windermere’s Fan (unabridged); Peter Pan (abridged); Realms of Gold (unabridged); A Shropshire Lad (unabridged)

Cast

Lucy Scott: Clarissa Harlowe
Roger May: Robert Lovelace
Katie Scarfe: Anna Howe
Nigel Pilkington: John Belford, Dr H.
Hayward B. Morse: Colonel W.M. Morden, John Harlowe, Antony Harlowe, James Harlowe Snr, F.J. de la Tour, John Williams
Anna Bentinck: Judith Norton, Betty Lawrence, Mrs Charlotte Harlowe, Mrs Annabella Howe, Mrs Dorothy Hervey, Lady Charlotte Montague, Sarah Hodges
Paul Panting: James Harlowe Jnr, Charles Hickman, Elias Brand, Richard Mowbray, Roger Solmes, Patrick M’Donald and Captain Tomlinson, Joseph Leman, Arthur Lewen, Thomas Doleman, William Summers, Alexander Wyerley
Teresa Gallagher: Arabella Harlowe, Charlotte Montague, Dolly Hervey, Hannah Burton
John Foley: Announcer


Samuel West: Samuel Richardson

Reviews

The cast of this audio production must be commended for undertaking one of the longest novels in English literature. They are successful in capturing Richardson’s many epistolary voices. Lucy Scott gives an admirable performance as Clarissa Harlowe; her clear, soft voice captures the earnestness and innocence of the chief character. While Clarissa most often speaks sincerely to her trusted friend, Scott adapts her tone to suit each letter’s recipient. Roger May conveys the devilish Lovelace with a scornful and arrogant tone. The novel has many speakers, and, thankfully, actors Anna Bentinck and Paul Panting flawlessly play several roles. This wonderful combination of talents makes Volume 1 a tantalising beginning to the rest of Samuel Richardson’s lengthy novel.

D.M.W., Booklist