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Who is Julia Frankau?

Julia Davis Frankau (1859-1916) was a sister of George Moore’s close friend James Davis (1853-1907), to whom the first edition of A Mummers Wife (1885) is dedicated. James was a journalist, theater critic and subject-matter expert for George’s realistic fiction.

Julia and George may have been introduced by James. Like George, she was a gifted and unconventional young Irish novelist in London. In 1883 she married merchant Arthur Frankau.

Writing under the pseudonym Frank Danby, Julia’s first novel Dr. Phillips: A Maida Vale Idyll was published by Henry Vizetelly just two years after Vizetelly scored a commercial success with George’s A Mummer’s Wife.