Frances Burney

Though not as famous for her plays as for novels, Frances Burney garnered high praise for her work and paved the way for subsequent female (and especially satiric) writers.

Frances Burney's early life was surrounded by intellect and intelligence. When she was a child, her father Charles Burney (a talented musician and man of letters) moved the family to London. By ten years old, Fanny was writing in a personal journal; she was a noted diarist. Her first entry, addressed to "Nobody," was written in 1768. She continued the journal for over 70 years. As a novelist, she was known for the epistolary style, common at the time. Her first and most famous novel, Evelina, was published in 1778 (anonymously, and without her family's knowledge).

As a dramatist, Burney wrote both comedies and tragedies, although none were performed in her lifetime. The most famous is The Witlings (1779), a satiric look at London literary society. Although she was encouraged by renowned theatre professionals of the time, such as Richard Brinsley Sheridan, the play was not produced for fear of accusations of impropriety. In 1945, the New York Public Library acquired Burney's collected letters and papers, and the first known public performance of The Witlings happened in 1998.