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Article: Fanny Burney: A Biography.(Review)
- Article from:
- The New Leader
- Article date:
- July 1, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 American Labor Conference on International Affairs. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Fanny Burney: A Biography By Claire Harman Knopf. 448 pp. $30.00.
"TO THE AUTHORS of the monthly land critical reviews: Gentlemen, The liberty which I take in addressing to you the trifling production of a few idle hours, will, doubtless, move your wonder, and probably, your contempt."
So begins Fanny Burney's anonymous letter to her critics at the beginning of her first novel, Evelina (1778). The missive is a masterpiece of doublespeak, the obsequious tone barely masking reproof. Burney drops some hints about "the generous sentiments by which liberal criticism, to the utter annihilation of envy, jealousy, and all selfish views, ought to be ...