The Corvey Novels Project at the University of Nebraska

— Studies in British Literature of the Romantic Period —

 

 

Mary Meeke

Mrs. Meeke. The Spanish Campaign; or, The Jew. A Novel. 3 vols.

London: A. K. Newman and Co., 1815.

 

Contemporary Reviews

There appears to be only one notice of a contemporary review of the novel:

[Mary Meeke]. Mrs. Meeke. The Spanish Campaign: or, The Jew; a Novel. Edinburgh Review. No. 24. February 1815:545.

Several reviews of other of Meek's novels may help to indicate the fashion in which her work was received and reviewed.

[Mary Meeke]. Gabrielli. Independence: a Novel. New Annual Register. Vol. 23. JAS 1802:322

'Independence; by Gabrielli;' the hero…is by turns a mountebank, a rope-dancer, and an English peer, without any pretensions to the latter rank of society, or any pre-eminent dexterity for either of the former. [exerpt from review of many works]

[Mary Meeke]. anonymous. Something Odd!: a Novel. Monthly Mirror. Vol. 18. JAS 1804:321

Why a bad novel should be called 'Something Odd,' is something strange; and unless this sorry work should meet with a good sale, any clear right to it's present title will not appear.

[Mary Meeke]. Mrs. Meeke. Palmira and Ermance: a Novel. Critical Review. V. 24. October 1798:450.

Innocent Entertainment, without any fixed purpose of the moral kind, appears to be the object of this novel. The characters, principally those of France under the old government, are drawn with spirit. The dialogue is lively; and the incidents of the first and second volumes are interesting. The character of a fop, partly on the English and partly on the French plan, is well sustained, and is exposed to just contempt. In the third volume, the story is unnecessarily [237] spun out' but upon the whole, this is one of the most amusing of the second-rate novels.

- Prepared by William Thomas, University of Nebraska. December 2, 2002