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The Beggar Girl and her Benefactors. By Mrs Bennet, Author of the Welch Heiress, &c. 7 Vols. 12mo. Il. IIs. 6d. Sewed. Lane. 1797.
Whenever quantity shall become the criterion of merit, we shall perhaps be able to estimate the value of this work more agreeably to the author's wishes than at present. If it be true, according to the Greek proverb, that a great book is a great evil, a great novel may be considered as the greatest of all evils. We do not, however, mean to say that there is little in this work to compensate its enormous extent; but we are apprehensive that readers of novels are not always gifted with the requisite patience to peruse seven volumes, in order to discover what might have been much better told in three. There are scenes of tenderness, delineations of character, and some attempts at humour, which will not fail to please: but, on the whole, the story is eked out with a strange excess of digression, and with many superfluous characters. The ingenious authoress will consult her interest better by adhering [sic] to simplicity of narrative, and by reflecting, that to draw an unnatural character shows no acquaintance with real life, and is more calculated to disgust than instruct. We do not wish to [357] give foreigners an idea that our island is peopled with such persons as Dr Croak and Mrs Bawsky. [complete]
Provided by Julie A. Shaffer, January 2000
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