Volume 5 Summary: OMG.... What can I say, spoiler free, except to comment that Lovelace is one very conniving, dubious individual. The fact that he has the time to come up with the various contrivances to test Clarissa's virtue is so despicable gives a whole knew understanding top the term "rake". No wonder Clarissa is feeling at her wits ends! She is hitting brick wall after brick wall in seeking her deliverance. Thankfully, she is not a woman without calculating means to counter and stymie Lovelace in his quest. This test of virtue he is exposing Clarissa to is just a young rich man's fancy gone way to far...why he doesn't spend his time chasing policeman's caps, etc I can only guess is due to his aversion to doing any jail time. As for Clarissa's family... where the heck have they been this past volume??? Nice family if they are that quick to disown their daughter and absolve themselves of any involvement in Clarissa's predicament , forgetting the fact that their desire that Clarissa marry the unwelcomed Solmes character as a "husband" for Clarissa, and was pretty much the precipice to everything that follows, makes me want to shame the family as being unworthy. Makes me wonder if a form of social media in the 1700's have produced a very different result to date (considering Clarissa's predicament comes down to the inability of Clarissa to find any "champions" to her cause other than than her friend Miss Howe and the more recent quavering of Belford, Lovelace's friend.

Overall, I can see why anyone trying to read the story based on letter dates gets frustrated. I swear over half of the story is captured in letters written between April and early July! I need a break from the drama - and drama it is!. ( )