SOURCE: Review of Confessions of the Nun of St. Omer. British Critic (December 1805): 671.

In the following review, contemporaneous with the publication of Confessions, the reviewer praises the novel's useful moral but berates its affected prose.

Confessions of the Nun of St. Omer; a Tale in Three Volumes. By Rosa Matilda. 12mo. Hughes. 1805.

A very fine, sentimental, and improbable story, written in turgid and affected language. For example, “at length I married; it was a step of desperation, and failed of yielding me the solace I expected; it smoothed not in its placid even chain, the effervessence of my soul,” &c. &c.

If this be not nonsense, it is certainly very like it. The moral, however, is good, for it teaches the mischiefs which arise from the neglect and violation of the social duties.