Volume IV of The Early Journals and Letters of Fanny Burney, covering the years 1780-1781, will be of particular interest to students of Burney as it marks the young author's introduction into the world following the astonishing success of her novel Evelina (1778) and includes her visits to Streatham and her encounters with Hester and Henry Thrale and Dr Johnson. It was an exciting period in her life, which she managed to enjoy despite struggling to repeat her first success while avoiding the often unwelcome attention it brought. But it was also a difficult period in her family life as she dealt with jealous interference by her stepmother, the courtship of her sister Susan by a man she considered untrustworthy, and the misbehaviour of her brothers. Burney's enthusiasm makes the most of her experiences and she describes characters and scenes with all the genius displayed in her novels. Her descriptions contain the four great attributes that distinguish her novels: brilliant handling of detail, total and full recall of conversations characteristic of the speaker, sensibility and empathy for others, and great relish for the ridiculous wherever it occurred.

Novelist and playwright Frances (Fanny) Burney, 1752-1840, was also a prolific writer of journals and letters, beginning with the diary she started at fifteen and continuing until the end of her eventful life. From her youth in London high society to a period in the court of Queen Charlotte and her years interned in France with her husband Alexandre d'Arblay during the Napoleonic Wars, she captured the changing times around her, creating brilliantly comic and candid portraits of those she encountered - including the 'mad' King George, Samuel Johnson, Sir Joshua Reynolds, David Garrick and a charismatic Napoleon Bonaparte. She also describes, in her most moving piece, undergoing a mastectomy at fifty-nine without anaesthetic. Whether a carefree young girl or a mature woman, Fanny Burney's forthright, intimate and wickedly perceptive voice brings her world powerfully to life.

Volume One is the first of a projected twelve-volume edition of Burney's early journals and letters and covers the years 1768-73. This edition reproduces her earliest journals in their original form, replacing omitted and altered passages. It shows her development as an artist and contains typically vivid sketches of her family, friends, and acquaintances in London and the country. Further volumes will cover the so-called "Streatham Years" (1778-86, 4 vols.) and "Court Years" (1786-91, 6 vols.). These will carry her through the period of her greatest fame as the author of the novels Evelina (1778) and Cecilia (1782), and will end with her exit from the Court of King George III and Queen Charlotte after five exhausting years of service to the Queen as Second Keeper of the Robes. Eighteenth-century scholars generally regard Fanny's early journals as her freshest and most appealing. This edition complements Joyce Hemlow's Oxford edition of Burney's letters and journals from 1791 to 1840 (12 vols., Oxford, 1972-84). While the early journals have been printed before, Lars Troide's edition will provide the first full text of Fanny's early journals, accompanied by thorough and accurate annotations which fully explicate the context in which the journals were written.

Evelina: Or the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World was published in 1778. Evelina has been raised raised in rural seclusion until her eighteenth year. She then travels to London learns how to navigate the complex layers of 18th century society and earn the love of a distinguished nobleman. This sentimental novel of manners often satirizes the society in which it is set and is a significant precursor to later works by Jane Austen and Maria Edgeworth. The illustrated edition includes 74 black and white illustrations by Hugh Thomson.

First published in 1796, Camilla, Fanny Burney's third novel, proved to be an enormous popular success. It deals with the matrimonial concerns of a group of young people-Camilla Tyrold and her sisters, the daughters of a country parson, and their cousin Indiana Lynmere-and, in particular, with the love affair between Camilla herself and her eligible suitor, Edgar Mandlebert.