A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Reeve, Clara
REEVE, CLARA,
Was born in 1745, at Ipswich, daughter of a clergyman. An early admiration of Horace Walpole's "Castle of Otranto" induced Miss Reeve to imitate it in a Gothic story entitled "The Old English Baron." Mr. Chambers, in his Cyclopaedia, says of this work,—"In some respects the lady has the advantage of Walpole: her supernatural machinery is better managed, so as to produce mysteriousness and effect, but her style has not the point or elegance of that of her prototype. Miss Reeve wrote several other novels, 'all marked,' says Sir Walter Scott, 'by excellent good sense, pure morality, and a competent command of those qualities which constitute a good romance.' They have failed, however, to keep possession of public favour, and the fame of the author rests on her 'Old English Baron,' which is now generally printed along with the story of Walpole."
"The Old English Baron" was published in 1777. and Miss Reeve died in 1803.