Clarissa: Or The History of a Young Lady is the title of an epistolary novel published by Samuel Richardson in 1748.

Clarissa Harlowe, the tragic heroine of Clarissa, is a beautiful and virtuous young lady of a family that has become very wealthy only in recent years, and is now eager to become part of the aristocracy by acquiring estates and titles through advantageous matches. She is forced by her relatives to marry a rich but heartless man against her will, and more importantly, against her own sense of virtue. Desperate to remain 'free', she lets a young gentleman of her acquaintance, Lovelace, scare her into escaping with him. However, she refuses to marry him, longing - unusually for a girl in her time - to live by herself in peace. Lovelace, in the meantime, has been trying to arrange a fake marriage all along, and considers it a sport to add Clarissa to his long list of 'conquests'. However, as he is more and more impressed by Clarissa, he finds it difficult to keep convincing himself that truly virtuous women do not exist. The continuous pressure he finds himself under, combined with his growing passion for Clarissa, forces him to extremes and eventually he rapes her. Clarissa manages to escape him, but remains dangerously ill. When she dies, however, it is in the full consciousness of her own virtue, and trusting in a better life after death. Lovelace, tormented by what he has done, but still unable to change, dies in a duel with Clarissa's cousin, and Clarissa's relatives finally realise what they have caused, but only to discover that they are too late and Clarissa has already died.