A Known Scribbler

“This rich selection gives a vivid sense of Burney, the sharp-eyed and exacting writer. It also brings to life her struggles, and her self-awareness, as an author, striving and competing in a literary marketplace. The book charts one extraordinary woman’s life of writing, but its journal entries, letters and reviews also reveal the changing habits of a whole literary culture.” — John Mullan, University College London

“These accounts of Frances Burney’s literary adventures, along with the advice of her closest friends and relatives, provide a penetrating view of a woman writer’s constraints and obstacles in the eighteenth century. Justine Crump’s selections, from Burney’s excitement over the anonymous publication of Evelina to Samuel Crisp’s warnings about propriety and Edmund Burke’s praise of Cecilia, provide intriguing perspectives of Burney and her art.” — Linda Lang-Peralta, The Metropolitan State College of Denver