Mary Meeke

"Gabrielli." Something Strange: a Novel (1806)

 

Contemporary Reviews

Mary Meeke's Something Strange was apparently only reviewed once in the contemporary periodical literature. This was apparently not unusual, however. A quick scan of Ward's Literary Reviews shows that Meeke's novels usually received only one or two notices. Something Strange received the following brief notice in James Mill's Literary Journal. The review is rather short, though favorable, and in some ways this is rather revealing. A few months earlier, the Literary Journal contained a much longer review of an anonymous novel called The Last Man, or Omegarus and Suderia, a Romance in Futurity (also available in the Corvey) which savages the novel for its "ridiculous actions and conceits", "fooleries", and "absurdities and inconsistencies". Similarly, the most savage review of Percy Shelley's Zastrozzi extends to two and a half pages, while the more promising notice is only a brief paragraph (Broadview edition 279-82). Meeke's massive four-decker did not inspire the reviewer to disgust, nor did she inspire him to high praise, but she did, apparently, provide him with a satisfactory diversionary entertainment. It's worth noticing, however, that the reviewer seems to be coming from a rather utilitarian worldview, tacitly favoring "realism" over the imagination.

Michael Page, University of Nebraska, December 2002

From James Mill's Literary Journal, August 1806, p. 218.

Art. 20. Something Strange. By Gabrielli, 4 vols. 12mo. 18s. Land and Co. 1806.

The person who chose this title seems to have understood the taste of the multitude. Let them have something strange, and they will never inquire whether it be in the smallest degree consonant to nature or common sense. Certainly there are some strange things here; and such as we can scarcely believe to have happened. But upon the whole, the work is better than we at first expected. It is written with some spirit and humour, and will not suffer by comparison with most of the novels of the day.