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The Lake of Killarney. A Novel. By Anna Maria Porter, Author of Octavia, Walsh, Colville, &c. 3 Vols. pp. 940; price 9s. Longman and Rees, London. 1804.
The novel from which we can extract innocent amusement is to us acceptable, though it should present only the sufferings of sensibility, the sorrows of the heart, and the comparatively playful cares of love. That the Lake of Killarney belongs to this class of fictions, is not to be disputed; but, unlike most of its kindred volumes, the interest which it creates in the first chapter is progressive to the last. It inculcates pure morality, it breathes elevated sentiment; it awakens no sympathies that are not honourable to the writer, and friendly to the cause of virtue. Rose de Blaquiere and Felix Charlemont are ostensibly the hero and heroine of Killarney; but many other personages are introduced, who are perhaps equally entitled to our affection and esteem. Of these, Colville Barry and Mrs Fitzpatrick are pre-eminent. We do not recollect to have ever been introduced to so many dangerous men and fascinating women. Man, woman, and child, they are almost all invested with supreme beauty and transcendant grace: - that the ladies should be thus distinguished, is perhaps just; that the hero should be as refulgent an Apollo, is very allowable; but that all his compeers should be equally the favourites of nature - should all be so amazingly handsome, is a circumstance calculated to promote the malice of certain uncouth readers.
If the elegant writer have [sic] been somewhat too elaborate of outward ornament, she has not, however, neglected the superior claims of mind. She has paid our sex the compliment to form of them a band of choice spirits, whose words are vows: whose oaths are oracles; their tears pure messengers sent from their hearts; their hearts as far from fraud, as heaven from earth. In return for this tribute, may the man to whom she shall assign her destiny, be generous as her Fitzpatrick, noble as her Barry, constant as her Charlemont, and honourable as her Glenroy: to sum all, may she be as happy as Rose, whose felicity is well described in a letter to Mrs Fitzpatrick!
We were surprised to meet with such colloquial vulgarisms as quiz and cut, in these volumes. The inaccuracies of an elegant pen are offensive to the eye and ear that had anticipated the gratifications of refined taste. We therefore impose our censorial mandate on this lady (who is, we believe, young enough to owe us some deference as her elders) religiously to guard against them in her future pages. [excerpt from review of many works]
Provided by Julie A. Shaffer, January 2000
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