Frances Burney

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FB , renowned as a novelist in her youth and middle age, outlived her high reputation; her fourth and last novel (published in 1814) was her least well received. Her diaries and letters, posthumously published, were greeted with renewed acclaim. During the late twentieth century the re-awakening of interest in her fiction and the rediscovery of her plays revealed her as a woman of letters to be reckoned with. Today her reputation in the academic world stands high, and productions of her plays are no longer isolated events.
  • BirthName: Frances Burney
  • Nicknames: Fanny
    Burney's readers are still divided as to whether to call her Frances (the form she herself used for her signature, currently favoured by the majority of scholars, particularly those in North America) and Fanny (the form used by her relations, favoured in the past, still current in England).
    ; The Old Lady
  • Married:
  • Pseudonym: A Sister of the Order
  • Indexed: D'Arblay
    In deference to her husband's nationality, she was known socially in her later years as Madame D'Arblay. The use of this form in indexes is decreasing.
Photo of the painting of Frances Burney by her cousin Edward Francisco Burney, c. 1784-5. She is turned to the viewer's left with lowered gaze, wearing a long-sleeved pale pink gown with a pink bow and a dark shawl; but the portrait is dominated by her huge hat with puffed-up crown and bow of broad ribbon. National Portrait Gallery

Milestones

13 June 1752

FB was born at King's Lynn, Norfolk, into the middle of a large family.
Hemlow, Joyce. The History of Fanny Burney. Clarendon, 1958.
7

13 June 1767

On her fifteenth birthday FB made a bonfire of her writings so far: Elegies, Odes, Plays, Songs, Stories, Farces—nay, Tragedies and Epic Poems.
Burney, Frances. Memoirs of Doctor Burney. Edward Moxon, 1832, 3 vols.
2: 124
Doody, Margaret Anne. Frances Burney: The Life in the Works. Cambridge University Press, 1988.
35

27 March 1768

FB began her surviving diary at her home in Poland Street, London, addressing herself to Miss Nobody.
Burney, Frances. The Early Journals and Letters of Fanny Burney. Editors Troide, Lars E. et al., Clarendon Press, 1988–2002, 4 vols.
1: 1

January 1778

FB , with elaborate safeguards of her anonymity, published her first novel, Evelina; or, A Young Lady's Entrance into the World.
Doody, Margaret Anne. Frances Burney: The Life in the Works. Cambridge University Press, 1988.
39
OCLC WorldCat. 1992–1998, http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.

30 July-21 August 1839

FB wrote her last letter, to her niece Charlotte Barrett .
Burney, Frances. The Journals and Letters of Fanny Burney (Madame D’Arblay). Editors Hemlow, Joyce and Althea Douglas, Clarendon Press, 1972–1984, 12 vols.
12: 966-70

6 January 1840

On the anniversary of her sister Susan's death, FB died in London.
Doody, Margaret Anne. Frances Burney: The Life in the Works. Cambridge University Press, 1988.
381

29 January 1842 - 1846

FB 's niece Charlotte Barrett published in seven volumes the Diary and Letters of Madame d'Arblay. The first five were published between 29 January and 19 November 1842.
Burney, Frances. The Journals and Letters of Fanny Burney (Madame D’Arblay). Editors Hemlow, Joyce and Althea Douglas, Clarendon Press, 1972–1984, 12 vols.
11: xv
The Athenaeum Index of Reviews and Reviewers: 1830-1870. http://replay.web.archive.org/20070714065452/http://www.soi.city.ac.uk/~asp/v2/home.html.
770 (29 January 1842): 101-4, 786 (19 November 1842): 982-4

Biography

Birth and Family

13 June 1752

FB was born at King's Lynn, Norfolk, into the middle of a large family.
Hemlow, Joyce. The History of Fanny Burney. Clarendon, 1958.
7

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