SOURCE: Review of Tales of the Heart by Amelia Opie, in Monthly Review, Vol. XCII, May-August, 1820, pp. 375-87.

In the following review, the critic finds fault with Opie's Tales of the Heart for its inability to stir the emotions, the presence of unlikely situations, poor diction, and a lack of care in describing everyday events.

It is the fate of our craft to be frequently assailed by feelings that interfere with the cool and deliberate exercise of our judgment; and this is a predicament which happens chiefly when a female writer is before us. We cannot speak harshly, or judge austerely, of authors in muslin and sarsenet: gallantry, or sometimes a tenderer sentiment, interposes, and blots out an ungracious criticism or an uncourtly sentence; and the female errors that fall to her share are instantly forgotten, as our fancy calls up to us the face or the figure...