Abstract

This essay examines Frances Burney’s novel Camilla (1796) in terms of its portrayal of the relationship between ‘deformity’ (physical disability) and female education. It argues that in Camilla, Burney applies the ‘monster’-as-genius trope (typically a male phenomenon in the eighteenth century) to Eugenia Tyrold, whose bodily abnormalities enable her to develop into a Classical scholar. Eugenia’s ‘masculine’ education, in turn, allows her to pen a critique of patriarchy and the male gaze. By exploring Eugenia’s character alongside other prominent eighteenth-century historical and literary figures, such as Samuel Johnson, Alexander Pope, William Hay, Aesop, and Mrs. Smith from Jane Austen’s Persuasion, this essay posits that Camilla contributes to a Georgian-era discourse of disability in which bodily impairments facilitate intellectual development.

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