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Barbara Eaton's delightful biography has restored Chapone to her rightful place... a vivid portrait of Chapone as both 'spitfire' and dutiful daughter, earnest moralist and irreverent satirist. Hester Chapone, an early bluestocking, was born in 1727. When tragedy hit her marriage she was left in debt and turned to writing for money. In 1773 Letters on the Improvement of the Mind was published and became a bestseller until well into the 19th Century. Highly influential in the education of girls it was mentioned by Sheridan in The Rivals, Thackeray in Vanity Fair, and by Jane Austen as Edmund's model for Fanny's education in Mansfield Park.