Divided Fictions: Fanny Burney and Feminine Strategy - Hardcover

"A genuinely significant contribution to our understanding of Burney's fiction." -- Studies in English Literature "A deft, sophisticated study.... Not only does it implicitly establish Burney's importance, but it also lays new ground for viewing other eighteenth-century women writers." -- Choice

" Today Fanny Burney's venture into authorship would not be questionable. She was, after all, a daughter of a celebrated musician, and the Burney family was know to the circle of Samuel Johnson and Hester Thrale. Yet as Kristina Straub ably shows, the public recognition which followed the publication of her first novel placed Fanny Burney in a situation of disturbing ambiguity. Did she become famous or notorious? Was she a prodigy or a freak? In this study of Burney, Straub not only describes and analyzes the disturbing transition of a writer's self-awareness as a woman and a literary artist from private to public terms, but also reveals in Burney's works a hitherto unacknowledged complexity."