At the beginning of our group read, I said I was hoping to discover exactly what Jane Austen thought of Mrs. Radcliffe. There have been clues along the way -- Henry certainly defends her novels and says how much he enjoyed reading them. However here we have the final verdict as Ellen M. quotes: "Charming as were all Mrs. Radcliffe's works, and charming even were the works of all her imitators, it was not in them perhaps that human nature, at least in the midland counties of England, was to be looked for."