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Art. 31. Joscelina; or, the Rewards of Benevolence. A Novel. Dedicated, by Permission, to her Royal Highness the Duchess of York. By Isabella Kelly, Author of Madeline Abbey, St Asaph, &c. &c. In Two Volumes. 8vo. Longman. 1797.
Our first, but we fear ineffectual, admonition with regard to novels, has been that the reading of them should be made an occasional amusement, and not a daily or serious occupation. Our next, and we trust more successful, care has been, to appreciate their respective merits with tolerable exactness; distinguishing, first, those which are innocent, instructive, and well written; secondly, those which possess only two of these properties, being deficient in the last mentioned; thirdly, those which are pernicious in their tendency, whether they be well or ill written. Upon these we shall set, as deeply as we are able, our mark of reprobation.
Joscelina must be placed in the second of these classes. That this work would be perfectly unexceptionable in its tendency, and in some degree, instructive also, we were prepared to expect from the circumstances of the personage to whom it is, with permission, dedicated. [317] But the heroine of the story is led through such a variety of trials and miseries, as could hardly fall to the lot of any human creature. Some very excentric and incongruous characters are also introduced to her story. How it fares with her in the conclusion, we will not say; because we would not diminish any readers [sic] attention to a narrative, which may in a considerable degree interest and amuse him [sic], with some benefit perhaps, and certainly no injury to his morals. [complete]
Provided by Samantha Kirkby, September 1999
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