I came into this novella with a lot of expectations. I had heard this work compared to Austen's Northanger Abbey and even Milton's poems L'Allegro and Il Penseroso. Unfortunately, all I picked up on was the air of pretension and I couldn't get past it to enjoy this. It's quality writing, but not at the bar that had been set by other writers of this time. It was a mediocre read for me.