Frances Burney (1752-1840) is often remembered for her connections with such eighteenth-century figures as Johnson, Burke, Reynolds, Garrick, and Mrs. Thrale. She was famous in her own day, however, for her literary oeuvre, and her reputation was established largely on the grounds of her first novel, Evelina. Published anonymously in 1778, it is an epistolary account of a sheltered, orphaned... (read more)