SOURCE: Review of New Tales by Amelia Opie, in Monthly Review, Vol. LXXXVIII, March, 1819, pp. 327-28.

In the following review, the critic commends Opie 's New Tales for the realistic depiction of various characters.

Much variety and amusement will be found in these volumes: but, in the tale of the "Ruffian Boy," this justly celebrated writer departs from her usual practice of inculcating an important moral in every narrative: since this is a tale of fear and sorrow in which we cannot sympathise with the characters, and from which no higher lesson can be learned than the old rule that young ladies in a ball-room must not refuse one partner and afterward dance with another.

The story called "White Lies" is more useful and more natural, though it begins with a faulty expression, bordering on an Hibernicism: viz. 'Clara Delancy and Eleanor Musgrave were passing the morning together...