Editing Frances Brooke (section)

==Biography==
Frances Moore was born in [[Claypole, Lincolnshire]], England, the daughter of a [[clergyman]]. She was only three years old when her father died.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Spinner |first=Jenny |title=Of Women and the Essay: An Anthology from 1655 to 2000 |publisher=University of Georgia Press |year=2018 |isbn=978-0-8203-5424-8 |location=Athens, GA |pages=48}}</ref> Her mother's death followed soon after.<ref name=":1"/>

By the late 1740s, she had moved to London, where she embarked on her career as a poet and playwright. She did not drew attention until she published her essay serial ''The Old Maid''.<ref name=":1"/> Under the pseudonym of '''Mary Singleton, Spinster''', she edited 37 issues of this weekly periodical (1755–1756), which was patterned after ''[[The Spectator]]''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Messenger |first=Ann |title=His and Hers: Essays in Restoration and 18th-Century Literature |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-8131-5374-2 |location=Lexington, KY |pages=148}}</ref>

In 1756 she married Rev. Dr John Brooke, rector at [[Colney]], Norfolk.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Green |first=Katherine Sobba |title=The Courtship Novel, 1740-1820: A Feminized Genre |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |year=1991 |isbn=0-8131-1736-4 |location=Lexington, KY |pages=62}}</ref> The following year he left for Canada as a military chaplain while his wife remained in England. In 1763 she wrote her first novel, ''The History of Lady Julia Mandeville''. In the same year Brooke sailed to [[Quebec]], Canada to join her husband, who was then chaplain to the British garrison there. In autumn 1768 she returned to London, where she continued her writing.

Brooke was well-known in London's literary and [[theatre|theatrical]] communities. In 1769 she published ''[[The History of Emily Montague]]'', the first novel written in Canada. This brief stint in North America has caused some critics to label her "the first novelist in North America." Evidence of Brooke's wisdom and experience of life and its vicissitudes is apparent in her writing. One exemplary observation reflects that "It is a painful consideration, my dear, that the happiness or misery of our lives are generally determined before we are proper judges of either." Another reviewer recommended it for young ladies and praised the writer for her "art of engaging the attention by a lively stile, a happy descriptive talent, characters well-marked, and a variety of tender and delicate sentiments".<ref>[https://www.jarndyce.co.uk/online_catalogues/E-LIST%203%20Books%20&%20Pamphlets%201641-1817.pdf Jarndyce Antiquarian Booksellers, London: "Books & Manuscripts 1641–1817" Retrieved 26 September 2019.]{{Dead link|date=April 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

Also in 1769, Frances Brooke's novel ''The History of Emily Montague'' was used in the earliest [[Oxford English Dictionary]] citation for the hyperbolic or figurative sense of "literally"; the sentence from the novel was, "He is a fortunate man to be introduced to such a party of fine women at his arrival; it is literally ''to feed among the lilies''."<ref name="upenn">{{Cite web |url=http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=5914 |title=Language Log » Frances Brooke, destroyer of English (not literally) |publisher=languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu |access-date=22 January 2014}}</ref> The citation was still used in the OED's 2011 revision.<ref name="upenn"/>

Brooke died in [[Sleaford]], England, aged 65.