Some critics, such as Mark Kinkead-Weekes and Margaret Doody, like the novel and emphasise the importance of the moral themes that Richardson takes up. In a 1987 article, Kinkead-Weekes admits that the "novel fails at the crisis" and "it must be doubtful whether it could hope for much life in the concluding volumes". However, critics such as Jean Howard Hagstrum believe that "Richardson's last novel is considerably better than can be easily imagined by those who have only heard about it. But admittedly it represents a falling off after "Clarissa"". Morris Golden simply claims that the novel is a book for old men.