SOURCE: Review of Zofloya; or the Moor. Literary Journal, a Review of Literature, Science, Manners, Politics 1 (June 1806): 631-35.

In the following review, contemporaneous with the publication of Zofloya, the reviewer argues satirically that the novel requires of its readers a suspension of disbelief.

Zofloya; or, The Moor: A Romance of the Fifteenth Century. By Charlotte Dacre, better known as Rosa Matilda, Author of the Nun of St. Omers, Hours of Solitude, &c. 3vols. 12mo. 12s. Longman & Co. London, 1806.

After all it must be confessed that the devil is on many occasions a very ill used gentleman. Notwithstanding the liberal old saying, “give the devil his due,” many people act as if they thought that the devil had no right to expect justice in any form or mode. They have, perhaps, been led to think so from the selfish notion that Satan was a very convenient scape goat, and...