Stewart J. Cooke – författare

At the beginning of 1778, twenty-five-year-old Fanny Burney, second daughter of England's most eminent musicologist, Dr Charles Burney, was an unknown. By the year's end, however, she had emerged from his shadow as the author of Evelina, or, A Yound Lady's Entrance into the World, a universally acclaimed novel which admirers ranked with the works of Fielding and Richardson. The present volume - the third of a projected twelve-volume critical edition of Burney's earlier journals and letters - covers the period from January 1778 to December 1779. It reveals her striking transformation into a `celebrity' as she is welcomed into London's literary society, and her mixed delight and terror at this reception. As Burney becomes a regular at the Streatham Park home of Henry and Hester Thrale, she is befriended by another regular visitior, Samuel Johnson, and given the opportunity to observe and record the playful and affectionate side of Johnson's character, a side largely missed by Boswell. Urged by the Streathamites to write a comedy for the London stage, she responds with `The Witlings', a satiric portrait of London's bluestockings. Alarmed by the prospect of disapproval from the powerful bluestocking Elizabeth Montagu, Burney's father and her friend Samuel Crisp dissuade her from releasing the piece. Her disappointment is eased by the whirling social life that she enjoys in the company of the Thrales at Streatham and at Brighton, and on which she comments with characteristic perception and humour.

Volume V of The Early Journals and Letters of Fanny Burney covers a period of significant gains and losses for the young writer. Professionally, Burney consolidated her reputation as England''s premier novelist with the publication of Cecilia. Through a mutual friendship she gained an appointment as Keeper of the Robes to Queen Charlotte, a position that provided both financial security and an insider''s view to life at Court. Burney''s professional success during these years was balanced by countless personal setbacks. Deprived of the companionship of her favourite sister following her sister''s marriage, she also lost the friendship of Hester Lynch Thrale who grew increasingly distant during her romantic attachment to Gabriel Piozzi (whom she married in 1784). The death of her dear friend and mentor Samuel Crisp causes Burney deep sadness, and her emotional turmoil is further exacerbated by her introduction to George Owen Cambridge, a young clergyman to whom she is clearly attracted but who refuses to either declare himself to her, or leave her in peace. Throughout these trials and triumphs, Burney - an artist with an acute sense of the complexities and vagaries of human nature - never ceases to fix her lens on the fashions and follies of English society as they emerge in the manners of her time.

The complete plays of Fanny Burney, taken from the original manuscripts of her work. The work includes a general introduction, headnotes to each play, explanatory notes and variant readings.

The complete plays of Fanny Burney, taken from the original manuscripts of her work. The work includes a general introduction, headnotes to each play, explanatory notes and variant readings.