Editing Frances Burney (section)

==Education==
Burney's sisters Esther and Susanna were favoured by their father, for what he perceived as their superior attractiveness and intelligence. At the age of eight, Burney had yet to learn the alphabet; some scholars suggest she had a form of [[dyslexia]].<ref name=Epstein>Julia Epstein, ''The Iron Pen: Frances Burney and the Politics of Women's Writing''. (Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 1989) p. 23.</ref> By the age of ten, however, she had begun to write for her own amusement. Esther and Susanna were sent by their father to be educated in Paris, while at home Burney educated herself by reading from the family collection, including [[Plutarch]]'s ''[[Parallel Lives|Lives]]'', works by [[Shakespeare]], histories, sermons, poetry, plays, novels and [[courtesy book]]s.<ref name="Encyclopædia Britannica 450">''Encyclopædia Britannica'', Vol. 4 (Chicago, London: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 1971) p. 450.</ref> She drew on this material, along with her journals, when writing her first novels. Scholars who have looked into the extent of Burney's reading and self-education find a child who was unusually precocious and ambitious, working hard to overcome an early [[Learning disability|disability]].<ref name="Encyclopædia Britannica 450"/>

From the age of fifteen, Burney lived in the midst of a brilliant social circle, gathered round her father in Poland Street, and later in St Martin's Street. David Garrick was a frequent visitor, often arriving before eight o'clock in the morning. Burney left detailed accounts of people they entertained, notably of [[Omai]], a young man from [[Raiatea]], and of [[Alexei Grigoryevich Orlov|Alexis Orlov]], a [[favourite]] of [[Catherine the Great]]. She first met Dr Samuel Johnson at her father's home in March 1777.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=827}}

A critical aspect of Burney's literary education was her relationship with a family friend, the dramatist [[Samuel Crisp]], who had met her father in about 1745 at the house of [[Francis Greville, 1st Earl of Warwick|Charles Cavendish Fulke Greville]].<ref name="Encyclopædia Britannica 450"/> He encouraged Burney's writing by soliciting frequent journal-letters from her that recounted to him the goings-on in her family and social circle in London. Burney paid her first formal visit to Crisp at [[Chessington Hall]] in Surrey in 1766.