THE FIRST WOMAN NOVELIST.

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4561, 17 August 1883, Page 2

THE FIRST WOMAN NOVELIST.

We hardly read of a single authoress during the Middle Ages. In those days female education was almost entirely neglected, except in rare instances. If women had talent, they were compelled to hide it. No female novelist worthy of the name appeared in England until the reign of George 111. The lady who first had the courage to brave public opinion was Frances Burney, the friend of Garricfc and Dr. Johnston. Miss Burney remained unmarried until she was almost forty years of age. Eoraance is then supposed to exercise a less dominant power, iH/sfc she, nevertheless, had the impudence to espouse M. d'Arbley, a French refugee, whose income was only £100. The marriage, however, proved a very happy one. Macaulay describes d'Arblay as "an honorable and amiable man, with a handsome person, frank, soldier-like manner, and some taste for letters." The pair did not suffer from poverty; the wife became the bread-winner, and not long after her? marriage her third novel, " Camilla," was published, by which she is said to have realised over 3,000 guineas.