Frances Burney, Mme d’Arblay (1752-1840) [ Art and Literature ]
… where there are few suspensive subjects or pursuits of interest, ambition, or literature, that can enlist either imagination or instruction into conversation’. 1 However, by the early nineteenth century, all that had long changed, … with the help of the press, by which she understood all kinds of printed matter, though she did not dare name novels. Imagination, however, was as important as instruction : both, to her, served to enliven conversation and encouraged … various trends in the education especially of young girls: too much novel reading was dangerous, as it inflamed the imagination (and the passions) but too little was equally wrong, as it prevented young readers from learning about the …
Fiction | Masquerade | Memoirs | Theatre | Women
Encyclopedia