[1] Through the trials of its heroine, Opie explores the challenge of living virtuously in a corrupt society.
Opie was dismayed to find that Valentine's Eve displeased many of her Quaker friends and acquaintances - in part because of its allusions to adultery, seduction, and a brothel.
One reviewer felt that it 'is not calculated either by its conduct or its circumstances to display advantageously the talents of the writer'.
However, Isabelle Marie Cosgrave argues that the ending of Valentine's Eve is even bleaker than that of Clarissa.
She suggests that Valentine's Eve implicitly criticises both 'worldly' society and the Established Church, for failing to support those who try and live according to their Christian principles: "It is through society’s refusal to acknowledge the importance of religion in everyday life – and the malice that virtuous piety seems to invite – that Catherine Shirley comes to die ...