ABSTRACT
Thomas Holcroft roundly mocked the purple passages of the poem, by the review of William Wordsworth's "Descriptive Sketches" for Monthly Review in October 1793. Poems that describe scenic landscapes are dull, Holcroft argues, because readers are more apt to be moved by events and by sympathy for other creatures than they are to be absorbed by unpopulated scenes. Most critical evaluations of Holcroft's text have focused on central love triangle of the novel's three principal characters namely Anna, Frank, and Coke Clifton. Anna's father, Sir Arthur, is the novel's representative of the landed gentry, increasingly obsolete aristocratic elite that has defined itself by an anachronistic relationship to land. Both Anna and Frank judge actions and make decisions based on social rather than individual benefit-a system of values that the novel maintains is accessible to all. Sir Arthur has his eyes opened by Coke Clifton's abduction of his daughter as well as by Frank's persistent exemplary behavior and high moral standards.
