This volume opens with the publication and astonishing success of Fanny Burney's first novel, Evelina, in seventeen seventy-eight. Despite her initial secrecy and deep personal timidity, the book captures the attention of the literary elite, including luminaries like Sir Joshua Reynolds, Edmund Burke, and Dr. Samuel Johnson. Burney is drawn into the intellectual circle at Streatham, where she forms close bonds with her patrons, Mr.
and Mrs. Thrale, and enjoys the affectionate mentorship of Dr. Johnson.
The narrative follows her through various social excursions to Bath, Brighton, and Tunbridge Wells, detailing the colorful characters, odd personalities, and fashionable absurdities of the era. Alongside her social triumphs, the text reveals the private anxieties and domestic realities of an emerging author. She attempts to write a comedy titled The Witlings, which is ultimately suppressed after receiving harsh criticism from her trusted advisor Samuel Crisp. The volume also covers the later years of Dr.
Johnson's declining health, the emotional shock of Mrs. Thrale's remarriage, and Burney's eventual introduction to the royal family. It concludes on the eve of her fateful appointment as keeper of the robes to Queen Charlotte, setting the stage for her impending court servitude.
