from Library Journal: "This is the second scholarly biography of Frances (Fanny) Burney to appear within the last two years (following Janice Farrar Thaddeus's Frances Burney: A Literary Life, LJ 7/00). A forerunner of Jane Austen, novelist Burney (1752-1840) was one of the first women in England to earn her living as a writer. Resourceful and resilient, she witnessed many historical events and associated with an array of Georgian literary and political notables. In addition to her fiction, she left thousands of pages of journals and letters, which have served as a rich but untrustworthy source for her biographers. When it was published in Great Britain last year, this study by the Oxford-based biographer Harman was considered one of the most readable, perceptive, and balanced portraits to date, and indeed it is. Compared with Thaddeus's erudite "literary life," with its dense, scholarly focus and emphasis on the textual analysis of Burney's work, Harman's work is more readable and reveals the personal side of the less-than-truthful author. Harman skillfully uncovers inconsistencies in Burney's memoir while accurately and vividly depicting her life as a middle-class woman in the turbulent 18th century. This accomplished and accessible biography is highly recommended for both academic and public libraries. Carol A. McAllister, Coll. of William and Mary Lib., Williamsburg, VA"