A Moral Tale for Young People (1822),[3] still admired 20 years later by the child diarist Emily Pepys,[4] Miriam, or The Power of Truth.
[6] Miriam was among a number of novels of the time dealing with Jewish conversion, in this case of an American girl, whom she transposes to Westmorland in the North of England.
[7] In the words of a recent survey of women writers in that period, "Conversionists insist that modern Judaism erects its rituals as a last-ditch defense against what the Jews really suspect, namely, that the religion has lost its spiritual center.
"[8] The main female character of Earlswood departs from a Protestant Christian life for more ritualized Catholicism, but then realizes her mistake and thankfully returns to the former.
[16] That of Miriam is also signed C. A., but from Newport, Isle of Wight, February 1826, and dedicated to Miss Curry of Clanville, a hamlet in North Hampshire.
[21] A modern scholar remarks, "Charlotte Anley, an English Quaker disciple of Elizabeth Fry, behaved in a warm and accepting way towards the most violent convict women at the Paramatta Factory.
Protestants and Catholics alike listened with 'perfect attention' to the story of the prodigal son, they accepted religious tracts with 'apparent pleasure'.