Review of Sempronia
author: Elizabeth Moody
source date: March 1791

Elizabeth Moody Art. 34. Sempronia. 12mo. 3 Vols. 9s. sewed. Lane. 1790. [The Monthly Review , second series, vol. 4, March 1791, p. 343. Benjamin Nangle identifies Elizabeth Moody as the author of this review from an editor's marked copy of The Monthly Review . See Nangle, The Montly Review, Second Series, 1790-1815: Indexes of Contributors and Articles , Clarendon Press, 1955. This edition of this review article was prepared by Mary A. Waters with transcription and encoding assistance by Ismael Escalera. Sempronia is an anonymously published epistolary novel.]

If Reviewers are said to be liberal of their censures, let it not also be said that they are "niggards of their praise:" it is with pleasure that we bestow a tribute of our approbation on the fair Sempronia. The style of these letters is, on the whole, elegant; and though incidents are not sufficiently numerous and various to make the narrative interesting, the reader may discern, throughout the work, the latent possibilities of excellence; and may infer, from the writer's style, that she is capable of painting a good story with all it's necessary embellishments.—We would recommend it to her, in future, to pay a more diligent attention to the correctness of her publications, and not to usher them into the world in so much haste. May she remember that haste does not always promote good speed.