Customer Reviews

A Simple Story (World's Classics)

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This is no "Gone With the Wind" -- everybody gets what they deserve, according to the strictest moral code, and some get it with interest.

However, Inchbald excels at characterization -- she unites vanity and passion in one character, and still has a believable personality to show the reader -- and she can show a character in change, without losing the character's integrity. Although the tragedy she creates has a moral "told you so" aspect hard for modern readers to take, it also has the pathetic grandeur of the great tragedies -- small, pointless faults and actions which lead to irreversible pain. The humanity of Inchbald's insight is what makes this book one of my favorites among the 18th century women writers.

Inchbald has a great talent with words. This books is insightful, provocative and dramatic. Inchbald talks about love with such candidness and frankness that while your reading you can't help but feel an overflowing of emotions toward the main characters. Very satisfying ending the tidies up all the problems throughout the book.

Those who like Austen, Edgeworth, and Burney will enjoy this novel by Mrs. Inchbald. The primary characters of Mr. Dorriforth and Miss Milner are written with such humanity and honesty rather than cliched caricatures. (Warning: spoiler alert) Of particular notice is Inchbald's treatment of the adulterous or "fallen" wife. It is quite different than the other portayals given in other 17th and early 18th century novels. Inchbald makes neither a villainess nor a martyr out of Miss Milner (Lady Elmwood), but shows her as a victim of being brought up to be selfish and spoiled. The reader finds themselves rooting for Miss Milner's reform due to her many good qualities and her sincere and ardent love for her husband. You find yourself alternately pitying her and being disgusted by her. Yet the image of her that is left is that of a true penitent. Dorriforth's weakneses are explored as well and his transformation into an unmerciful tyrant as a result of her betrayal is an interesting plot twist of Inchbald's. By the end of the novel, Mrs. Incbald succeeds in convincing her reader to lament the spoiled and indulged upbringing of Miss Milner and to ponder what could have been if she had been raised differently.