Word: hahn
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Degree of Prudery, by Emily Hahn. A skillful biography of prim 18th Century British Novelist Fanny Burney. with Samuel Johnson and King George III as supporting characters (TIME, March...
...those who have ever read a book of Fanny Burney's I bow. To those who dare challenge the statement that she was one of God's dullest creatures, (a medieum of literary wit notwithstanding) I take off my hat. But to those who say that Emily Hahn has not written an excellent biography of Fanny Burney, dullness or no, I reply in heated words. "A Degree of Prudery" is that miracle of writing: an absorbing book about an almost flat person...
...Miss Hahn is much exercised to achieve this happy result. She is obliged to pad the life story of the eighteenth century novelist with fairly detailed studies of many of her close and not-so-close acquaintances. By this transparent device she manages to write a great deal about people intrinsically far more interesting than Fanny herself, notably Fanny's Father Charles Burney, the fashionable music teacher, and Hester Thrale, the fascinating woman who lodged Dr. Johnson for many years. This gallery of piquant people is what makes the biography so entertaining...
...interesting to note that Miss Hahn cuts off her biography almost immediately after Fanny marries--less than half way through her life. Fanny is not rich material for a book...
...Miss Hahn brings to this biography her unquestioned talent for giving an intimate impression of her characters, as well as her casual, chatty prose style with its humor shining quietly around the edges. As in her earlier biographies, she seems to take the reader into her confidence as she runs over the conflicting records of an anecdote (she is an indefatigable researcher) or discusses the curious character of her heroine. Unquestionably Miss Hahn is one of the finest biographers writing today; certainly only she could have made such a success out of Fanny Burney...