Charlotte Dacre's The Confessions of the Nun of St Omer (1805) was a bestseller with two subsequent editions by 1807. It tells the story of the willful Cazire, a young woman who is most susceptible to romantic temptations. In this volume, Cazire is abandoned by her father and sent to be educated in a convent. Afterwards, she meets a gentleman named Fribourg, and their seductive conversations lay the groundwork for an bloody, destructive fate. This...