I hadn't heard of Elizabeth Inchbald before- though had encountered one of her plays - 'Lovers' Vows' - mentioned in Jane Austen's 'Mansfield Park' , where it was deemed too risque for the young people's amateur theatricals.
Written shortly before Jane Austen's works (this was published in 1791), Inchbald has all the elegant turn of phrase of her later rival, but I didn't find any of the characters in the least credible. The whole felt more like a rather stagey, OTT ploay, where people faint, raise their eyes to heaven and behave in a generally unrealistic fashion.
[Spoiler alert] The story starts with wealthy Catholic priest, Mr Dorriforth, made guardian of the (Protestant) daughter of a late friend- Miss Milner. I found his ward a little too arch and duplicitous to engage with: her assumed romantic inclinations for a young nobleman later prove to have been subterfuge to cover her feelings for her guardian.
Yet even when Dorriforth happily comes into a title (the Vatican freeing him from his vows, so as to marry and further the Catholic cause) and the love can eventually be spoken, Miss Milner's general intractibility grates on the reader....
In the second part, we find a very different scenario. Years have passed, Miss Milner (now Lady Elmwood) has deceived her husband who has cast off both her and their daughter. He now lives an embittered and rather insane existence with his nephew and an elderly Catholic priest chum. Lady Matilda's name may not be spoken by anyone on pain of banishment...
It's perfectly readable and has an elegance and fluidity to the writing, but Jane Austen it is not! ( )

I am a fan of books written WAY back in the day, especially if they are still easy to understand and shed light on the differences between modern and olden sensibilities. First published in 1791, this is a bit older than my usual 19th century favorites. But it is still a wonderful portal into the past.

The spelling, at least in the edition I read, at that time had yet to be standardized, and they used many words that no longer exist in the English language. But yu can still understand things perfectly, (except perhaps for the use of the word lovelace as an insult), and it's extreme sentimentality, the way that people are in danger of death from unrequited love, the fact that the priests take snuff (cocaine) and other such era related shockers were enough to keep me riotously entertained. To the people of this time, this was nothing surprising. Even the fact that incest (real and figurative- Miss Milner wishes to marry her father figure, while later her daughter marries her cousin) is a prominent theme would probably not have raised any eyebrows. Now though, the sentiments expressed, the injustices upheld, and the fact that everyone adheres to an archaic mode of thought make this book positively startling.

I for one, gained a lot of insight, and a great appreciation for living in a post feminism world. Plus, it made me laugh a LOT, though that was never the author's intention. ( )