SOURCE: Monthly Review 31 (January 1800): 82.

In the following review of Hays's The Victim of Prejudice, the protagonist Mary Raymond is depicted as a character worthy of both love and pity owing to the disreputable circumstances surrounding her birth and history.

Mary, the heroine of this little tale, is, to the credit of the author's pencil, a spirited and affecting sketch, but somewhat out of nature; and the principle which it is designed to inculcate by no means follows from the premises. By the novels which issue from this school, love, which is a transient passion, is to be complimented, in all cases, at the expence of the regulations and institutions of society; and a respect for virtue and decorum is to be classed in the list of vulgar prejudices. Love, which is generally our happiness, may and will sometimes be our misery. The wisest and the best are often...