 On the other hand, John Wilson Croker, writing anonymously in the "Quarterly Review", although conceding that "the author has powers, both of conception and language", described the book as "a tissue of horrible and disgusting absurdity".In two other reviews where the author is known as the daughter of William Godwin, the criticism of the novel makes reference to the feminine nature of Mary Shelley.The "British Critic" attacks the novel's flaws as the fault of the author