Since its first publication in 1975, Frances Burney’s account of the mastectomy of her right breast in September 1811 has been more studied and written about than any other of her journals or letters. One obvious reason for its currency is that, unlike smallpox, breast cancer has not been eradicated, and may be even more common today than it was then. The story Burney tells has several aspects that might be recognised by a woman in the twenty-first century suspecting, diagnosed with, or combating the same condition. And because this document is both almost unique as a patient’s description of the experience of amputation surgery without anaesthetic, and is at least to some extent an account of a battle of wills between a female patient and her attending medical men, it has become a rich site for exploration by feminist scholars focused on the sexual politics of the occasion.