Frances Burney: A Literary Life

Emphasizing Frances Burney's professionalism and her courage, Janice Farrar Thaddeus shows the many-sided writer who recognized her abilities and exercised them, always carefully shaping her career. Though she often depicted herself as retiring, even fearful, Burney forced on her readers themes they were scarcely ready for, flamboyantly mixing genres, writing comically about intimate violence. Not content in old age to be merely a literary icon, she privately recorded with increasing clarity the moments when the world lacerates the self.