'Great and manifold are the books I have read since I saw you. You recommended "Thaddeus of Warsaw" long ago you may remember - and the work in my judgement fully deserves it. Miss Porter has no wit - she invariably bungles a picture of the conversatio[n] of ordinary persons, whenever she attempts it - why does she delight in unfolding the forward weaknesses of the female heart, and making even Mary Beaufort love first? - Yet with all her deficiencies she is interesting; - never failing to excite our sympathy, tho she cannot rank with our Fielding or Smollett?she infinitely surpasses the insipid froth of "The mob of Gentlemen, who write with ease".'