SOURCE: An introduction to The Wanderer or, Female Difficulties, by Fanny Burney, Pandora, 1988, pp. vii-xiv.

In the following essay, Drabble reevaluates The Wanderer, claiming that "Fanny Burney's common sense and common humanity survive the machinery of her own plot and counterbalance the melodrama with affectionate observation and a real optimism. "

The Wanderer is the fourth and last novel of Fanny Burney, and the least known. It was published in 1814 after a silence of fourteen years, and was eagerly—perhaps too eagerly—awaited by the many celebrated admirers, friends and critics who had so highly praised its predecessors, Evelina (1778), Cecilia (1782) and Camilla (1796). But for various reasons it disappointed expectations, and has since been little read except by scholars of the period: this is the first reprint since 1814. We can now ask ourselves: does it deserve the oblivion into which it fell? Is it merely a historical curiosity or may...