According to Hale (1852):—"Since Isa will take nothing on trust, the book contains speculations on the most lofty and abstruse themes: the existence of God, the origin of evil, free will, the miracles, the institution of marriage, and others. In none of these are the views either original or profound. Fifteen pages (45 to 60) are taken up with a discussion between Isa and Dugganne, in which Isa asserts, that, to each of us, the will within us is our only God; that "man's soul is the only relator"; and there are contained in the arguments on both sides some unsuccessful attempts at close and accurate reasoning."[4]
Hale characterizes the style as being, in general, forced and inverted, and the sentences often crude and nearly unintelligible. In page 28, speaking of a drunken husband, it is said with great truth that a man would not endure a drunken wife and then comes the following sentence: "And is a man, and if so, why? any more fit, under such circumstances, pursued by, overcome by such lust, to guide and direct his offspring? -to be called a father- a husband?" Such sentences abound all over the book. For an instance of unfortunate imagery, Hale quotes from page 160, where Isa, speaking of music, says, "I love to hear the human heart breasting the wavers of feeling, and leaping upon the beach of sound, saved, because it can find expression."[4]
The Westminster Review (1852), the editor states there is no creative power discerned in Isa.[3]
New York Daily Tribune (1852): "Miss Chesebro' has conquered a high place in a difficult sphere of literary creation. Without indulging in superfluous comparisons, we tell her that she need not envy the position of any female writer in this country. Her vigorous originality is a pledge of ability for future triumphs. But if she shall leave no other memorial of her gifted nature, it is no mean fame to have been the writer of 'Isa's Pilgrimage.'"[5]
Home Journal (1852): "The character of Isa is unique and extraordinary, requiring a powerful imagination to conceive, and a master-pen to portray. The style is vigorous as well as luxuriant. argumentative as well as imaginative, and carries a wild and weird spell to the heart of the reader."[5]
Albany Daily State Register (1852): "To many the book will be rely a powerfully-wrought fiction, which they will read at a grasp, and fling aside when they have gulped the denouement, as they do the scores of novels which are constantly pouring from the press; but to all who think, as well as read, it will prove something more and better."[5]
The Boston Journal (1852): "The author has drawn a melancholy picture illustrative of the fallibility of human judgment, and her tale, rightly understood, is a moral lesson of no inconsiderable force."[5]
The New York Observer (1852): "The writer of this volume, we believe, had high intentions of doing a great and good thing: it has marks of genius, truth, and feeling in it, and much of it is greatly to our mind."[5]
The Literary World (1852): "This is a work of more ambitious aim than that of the generality of brief works of fiction. The character of the heroine is powerfully sustained, the subordinate characters well developed, and the work elevated and healthy in tone."[5]
True Democrat (1852): "She evidently possesses great facility with the pen, and bids fair to make rapid progress in the path of letters. From a perusal of this new work, we have no hesitation in saying that she possesses a comprehensive, inventive, and brilliant mind, capable of conceiving strange scenes and positions, and reasoning upon them in sparkling language."[5]
Troy Daily Times (1852): "The Pilgrimage is fraught throughout with scenes of thrilling interest-romantic, yet possessing a naturalness that seems to stamp them as real; the style is flowing and easy, chaste and beautiful."[5]
Christian Freeman (1852): "Miss Chesebro' is evidently a thinker-she skims not the mere surface of life, but plunges boldly into the hidden mysteries of the spirit, by which she is warranted in making her startling revelations of human passion.”[5]
Albany Argus (1852): "There comes out in this book the evidence of an inventive mind, a cultivated taste, an exquisite sensibility, and a deep knowledge of human nature."[5]
New York Evangelist (1852): "It is a charming book, pervaded by a vein of pure ennobling thought."-Troy Whig. "There is no one who will doubt that this is a courageous and able work, displaying genius and depth of feeling, and striking at a high and noble aim."[5]
Arthur's Home Gazette (1852): "There is a fine vein of tenderness running through the story, which is peculiarly one of passion and sentiment."[5]
Christian Intelligencer (1852): "We have here a picture of the pilgrimage of life, made by one who has climbed the hill sufficiently high to make a retrospect of the past, give much of actual experience, and dart a glance along the vista lying before. Whoever follows her attentively through this volume will be the better fitted for the journey which all on earth must travel."[5]
Richmond Religious Herald (1852): "This is the production of a writer of considerable fancy, and good descriptive powers."[5]
Boston Evening Gazette (1852): "She holds a ready pen, and the pages evince a woman of deep thought."[5]
