Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Short Titles
Introduction
Frances Burney: A Brief Chronology
A Note on the Text

The Witlings (1778-80)
The Woman-Hater (1800-02)

Appendix A: Burney’s Earliest Theatrical Writing: Epilogue to Gerilda
Appendix B: Contemporary Letters and Diary Entries on The Witlings
Appendix C: Burney and Molière
Appendix D: Contemporary Critical Essays on “Laughing” and Sentimental Comedy
Appendix E: Literary Allusions in The Witlings and The Woman-Hater
Appendix F: Burney’s Cast-List for The Woman-Hater
Appendix G: Similarities between The Witlings, The Woman-Hater, and Burney’s Novels

Select Bibliography

About the Author

Peter Sabor is a professor at McGill University.

Geoffrey Sill is a professor at Rutgers University.

Reviews

It is no longer a secret for specialists only that Frances Burney wrote some of the finest stage comedies of the eighteenth century. Thanks to Peter Sabor and Geoffrey Sill, this splendid edition makes two of her best plays available to readers, directors, actors, and students alike." - Brian Corman, University of Toronto

"Burney’s comedies, like her novels, have lively and funny moments, but are likely to appeal to modern readers as much for their uncomfortably vivid depictions of embarrassment, vulnerability and marginalisation on the basis of gender, class, status and money. Peter Sabor and Geoffrey Sill’s edition effectively contextualises The Witlings and The Woman-Hater within eighteenth-century theatrical culture and Burney’s own preoccupations, literary and personal. This is an attractive, affordable, and excellently annotated edition." - Jacqueline Pearson, The University of Manchester