Clara Howard was the second-to-last novel published by Charles Brockden Brown.
[1] Critic Paul Worthington calls these novels a natural progression of Brown's quest for a perfect novel form, despite their divergence in themes.
[1] Critic Marin Samual Vilas, writing in 1904, noted that the epistolary form creates the greatest weaknesses of the novel.
[2] The novel focuses on how Clara's individuality becomes subsumed by social norms and expectations.
[1] Writing in 1904, critic and biographer Martin Samual Vilas called the novel "exceedly simple", full of "sickly sentamentalism", and evidence that "Experience in works of fiction did not add to Brown's ability in writing them.