Frances Burney: Difference between revisions
Created page with 'work in progress' |
No edit summary |
||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
work in | Frances Burney, also known as Fanny Burney or Lady D’Arblay, was born in London 13 June 1752. | ||
She was a novelist and playwright but is also famous for her posthumously published letters and diaries. | |||
== Fanny, the novelist == | |||
Fanny Burney decided to be a novelist in a time when novels were the least prestigious kind of literature and she was aware of that. “She wrote her novels with a mixture of doubt and daring, and remained all her life ambivalent about novels and the practice of fiction” (Devlin, p.15). | |||
Her early work [[Evelina]] (anonymously published in 1778) is considered a landmark in the development of the [[novel of manners]] as it comments on social life in England and illustrates Fanny’s ability of “observing and recording society”(Encyclopaedia Britannica). | |||
Although she never had a formal education she taught herself to read and spend a lot of time in her father’s library. She was an intelligent and talented woman but “publicly, she always maintained the demeanour appropriate to eighteenth-century expectations of women’s behaviour” (Simons, p.6). | |||
However, all of her novels were a huge success in her time and she became very famous. | |||
Her novels [[Cecilia]] and [[Camilla]] were even mentioned by [[Jane Austen]] in her novel [[Northanger Abbey]]. | |||
== Life at Court == | |||
From 1786 to 1791 Frances also spend some time at the English court, as the Second Keeper of the Robes to [[Queen Charlotte]]. But court life did not agree with her as she was neither interested in royalty nor in fashion. In the end isolation from her friends and family and courtly routine exhausted her. During those five years she wrote her four tragedies, which were not as successful as her novels. She was allowed to leave court because her health suffered from it. | |||
== Marriage and Life in France == | |||
In 1793 she married Alexandre d’Arblay, a “gentle and cultured” French émigré. It was a marriage based on love. They had one son. Only on the proceeds of her novel Camilla could they afford a proper lifestyle, as Alexandre did not have any money. | |||
While on a visit to France she was forced to stay there for ten years by the renewed [[Napoleonic Wars]]. Her experience of living in a strange society all by herself while her husband was at war led her to write her last fictional work, the novel [[The Wanderer]], which was published upon her return to England in 1814. | |||
---- | |||
After her death on January 6 1840 her journals and letters were published in nine volumes. Up until today they have proven to be “source-books of material about people, places, and manners” of Fanny Burney’s time (Adelstein, preface). | |||
---- | |||
References | |||
Adelstein, Michael E.: Fanny Burney. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1968 | |||
Devlin, D.D.: The Novels and Journals of Fanny Burney. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1987 | |||
Simons, Judy: Fanny Burney. London: Macmillan, 1987 | |||
Encyclopaedia Britannica http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/85638/Fanny-Burney | |||
---- | |||
Revision as of 14:17, 3 December 2009
Frances Burney, also known as Fanny Burney or Lady D’Arblay, was born in London 13 June 1752.
She was a novelist and playwright but is also famous for her posthumously published letters and diaries.
Fanny, the novelist
Fanny Burney decided to be a novelist in a time when novels were the least prestigious kind of literature and she was aware of that. “She wrote her novels with a mixture of doubt and daring, and remained all her life ambivalent about novels and the practice of fiction” (Devlin, p.15).
Her early work Evelina (anonymously published in 1778) is considered a landmark in the development of the novel of manners as it comments on social life in England and illustrates Fanny’s ability of “observing and recording society”(Encyclopaedia Britannica).
Although she never had a formal education she taught herself to read and spend a lot of time in her father’s library. She was an intelligent and talented woman but “publicly, she always maintained the demeanour appropriate to eighteenth-century expectations of women’s behaviour” (Simons, p.6).
However, all of her novels were a huge success in her time and she became very famous.
Her novels Cecilia and Camilla were even mentioned by Jane Austen in her novel Northanger Abbey.
Life at Court
From 1786 to 1791 Frances also spend some time at the English court, as the Second Keeper of the Robes to Queen Charlotte. But court life did not agree with her as she was neither interested in royalty nor in fashion. In the end isolation from her friends and family and courtly routine exhausted her. During those five years she wrote her four tragedies, which were not as successful as her novels. She was allowed to leave court because her health suffered from it.
Marriage and Life in France
In 1793 she married Alexandre d’Arblay, a “gentle and cultured” French émigré. It was a marriage based on love. They had one son. Only on the proceeds of her novel Camilla could they afford a proper lifestyle, as Alexandre did not have any money. While on a visit to France she was forced to stay there for ten years by the renewed Napoleonic Wars. Her experience of living in a strange society all by herself while her husband was at war led her to write her last fictional work, the novel The Wanderer, which was published upon her return to England in 1814.
After her death on January 6 1840 her journals and letters were published in nine volumes. Up until today they have proven to be “source-books of material about people, places, and manners” of Fanny Burney’s time (Adelstein, preface).
References
Adelstein, Michael E.: Fanny Burney. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1968
Devlin, D.D.: The Novels and Journals of Fanny Burney. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1987
Simons, Judy: Fanny Burney. London: Macmillan, 1987
Encyclopaedia Britannica http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/85638/Fanny-Burney