English novelist Macaulay's early novels were noted for their wit, urbanity and mild satire. Staying with Relations begins: Catherine Grey, a young female, and, like so many young females, a novelist, went to America one autumn and lectured to its inhabitants on the Creation of Character in Fiction. Catherine was twenty-seven, but had, nevertheless, so far only published three novels, for though diligent, she wrote slowly and at some length. If any should desire to know whether or not she also wrote well, I can but reply that her novels pleased some tastes and not others, and that it is impossible to say more or other than this of any writings, since philosophers have unfortunately failed, down the ages to arrive at any fixed standards of merit in art. Catherine's novels were probably quite averagely readable as novels go.