In 1761, the year Frances Burney turned nine, a gentlewoman named Sarah Pennington published a popular conduct book in the form of a letter to her daughters, in which she advised that novels “are apt to give a romantic Turn to the Mind, that is often productive of great Errors in Judgment, and fatal Mistakes in Conduct; of this I have seen frequent Instances, and therefore advise you never to meddle with this Tribe of Scribblers.”
