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Interesting as these volumes are, we should be negligent of our duty to the public, were we to bestow on them unqualified approbation; and we trust that the fair authoress herself will take in good part the strictures which we are about to make. Of the host of novels, with which the press groans, the generality are of so very inferior a nature as hardly to deserve notice; it is possible therefore, on this account, that we may not be altogether free from prejudice, when perusing the very best specimens of this branch of literature. Perfect impartiality and freedom from prepossession rank not among the privileges of any tribunal, and the decrees of criticism are awarded without any peculiar claim to infallibility. We have however always studied, and ever will study, to be as equitable as possible in the nice administration of literary justice.

With regard to the present work, we are of opinion that the conduct of Sophia towards Charles Belmont, in the scenes at Clarendon Abbey, is by no means consistent with female delicacy; she is willing, as a sacrifice to the prejudices of her father, to become the wife of Lord Acreland, at the same time that she takes no care to check her rising attachment for another; instead of avoiding his society, she seems rather to invite his notice. As Belmont is in some degree the hero of the piece, we should have been better pleased, had he not talked so much of the wounds which his honour had received from the intemperate language of Sir Edward Clarendon; for surely the situation, in which he and Sophia were found, might well have justified the suspicions of a cooler and less interested observer than Sir Edward. The story is altogether destitute of unity. The suffering Angelina, who gives name to the novel, the persecuted Sophia, the impetuous Belmont, the romantic Fairford, and Lord Acreland, together with a multitude of interesting under-characters, cause such a confusion, that, as soon as attention is excited for one, it is immediately called to another. - Such appear to us to be the defects of a work, which with all its faults we are little inclined to condemn; for we are persuaded that it cannot but excite a lively interest in those who read it, (not, as we are obliged to do, with the view of criticizing,) but solely [351] with a wish to be pleased; as that every Sun, whose surface at first appears to the astronomers to be deformed by spots, is all radiance to the naked eye.

*Mrs. R. did not, we suppose, know that the title, Angelina, has not the merit of novelty: it was given to a work belonging to the same class, some years ago. See our General Index, vol. I. p. 481. Nor is this the only instance which we recollect.

[complete] Provided by Julie A. Shaffer, August 1999.