This is a really interesting read. In some ways it's quite typically Gothic, but the suspense is very well handled and the resolution interestingly atypical. A wealthy Roman Catholic man of 40 something marries a young wife, who bears him 2 sons and 1 daughter and then dies. The man, Sir Mordaunt Falconberg, dotes on the eldest son but ships the daughter and younger son off to Italy where they are destined to be a nun and a monk. The younger brother dies neglected in Italy, the elder brother dies despite all his father's attention. When the daughter, Edourda, has to leave the continent owing to the political unrest there, she arrives at her father's house only to be told by his servants and spiritual advisers that she cannot see him because he will be too angry with her. She therefore ends up living in virtual imprisonment, with only a friendly servant, Rachael, for company. She is briefly seen by a neighbouring young gentleman, who is entranced by her. She tries to see her father but only encounters her mother's supposed ghost. Eventually her brother (the younger one supposedly dead in Italy) finds her, and together they explore the house further and discover their mother still alive.
It turns out that Sir Mordaunt was convinced his wife was having an affair and that his youngest two children were not his. So he locked up his wife and got rid of the two young children, and is now mad and virtually imprisoned by the monks that surround him. Just when everything looks like it might end well, Sir Mordaunt is released by the intervention of the lovestruck young neighbour - he is well and truly mad and instantly slays his son. Much confusion follows, Edourda is saved but her mother declines and dies. Eventually Edourda recovers but decides that she must never marry herself because she is terrified of passing on the insanity of her father so she ends her days "in philosophic retirement.' What seems to me particularly interesting is that a typical romance ending is emphatically denied, and in particular the lovestruck young man (who genre demands should ultimately win Edourda's hand) is shown to be rather useless, and is rejected by Edourda out of hand.
Note, however, that the whole thing is very strongly anti-Catholic (and therefore quite typical of the Gothic genre). What is perhaps, interesting about this, however, is the way that the author manages to transplant a Catholic setting to Yorkshire by virtue of having Edourda brought up in Italy, and Sir Mordaunt imprisoned by his religious advisers.

The main novella is introduced by letters written from the 'Solitary Wanderer' of the title to a friend. The Wanderer is staying on the North East coast around Robin Hood's Bay when he learns of Palsgrave Abbey from a local peasant who speaks a strongly marked North Eastern dialect. Within the novel there are three major dialect speakers - Mrs Gournay the housekeeper, Mr Camus the steward and Rachael a 'simple country girl' and servant who becomes Edourda's closest companion. None of these speak with a very marked dialect, however, and the dialect marking tends to come and go a bit. Rachael, who should really be the most marked speaker, is generally the least marked (possibly because she's shown to be a sympathetic character). There is, however, one passage in which she suddenly becomes much more dialectal, when she's recounting a conversation between herself and Mrs Gournay. The younger brother, Henry, has supposedly been brought up in Italy and to have only learnt English later and not very well. However, there is nothing about his speech to indicate an Italian accent at all.