Her works were designed to appeal primarily to a female audience, and usually had working-class or middle-class female protagonists concerned with romantic relationships and economic need (see Major themes). Her work was described in 1928 as "overwhelmingly prodigal of both feeling and language...mix naked, realistic detail with simple unrestrained emotion." Hurst was heavily influenced by the works of Edgar Lee Masters, particularly "Spoon River Anthology" (1916), and also read the works of Charles Dickens, Upton Sinclair, and Thomas Hardy. Hurst considered herself to be a serious writer, and publicly disparaged the works of other popular authors such as Gene Stratton-Porter and Harold Bell Wright, dismissing Wright as a "sentimental" author whose works people read only for "relaxation". Early in Hurst's career, critics also considered her a serious artist, admiring her sensitive portrayals of immigrant life and urban working girls. Her stories and books regularly made annual "best-of" lists, and she was called a female O. Henry. Her second novel, "Lummox" (1923), about the tribulations of an oppressed domestic servant, was praised for its insights by Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, and Eleanor Roosevelt. However, some reviewers criticized her for "sappy" plots and careless writing, and F. Scott Fitzgerald, in his 1920 novel "This Side of Paradise", had a character presciently describe Hurst as one of several authors "not producing among 'em one story or novel that will last 10 years."