ABSTRACT
Mrs. Charlotte Smith's powers of satire were great, but they seldom exhibit a playful or light character. Her experience had unfortunately led her to see life in its most melancholy features, so that follies, which form the gist of the fortunate, had to her been the source of disquiet and even distress. The chef-d'oeuvre of her works is, according to the recollection, the Old Manor-House, especially the first part of the story, where the scene lies about the ancient mansion and its vicinity. The most deficient part of her novels is unquestionably the plot, or narrative, which, in general, bears the appearance of having been hastily run up, as the phrase goes, without much attention to probability or accuracy of combination. There is yet an attribute of her fictitious narratives, which may be a recommendation, or the contrary, as it affects readers of various temperaments, or the same reader in a different mood of mind.
