Frances Burney

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Standard Name: Burney, Frances
Birth Name: Frances Burney
Nickname: Fanny
Nickname: The Old Lady
Married Name: Frances D'Arblay
Indexed Name: Madame D'Arblay
Pseudonym: A Sister of the Order
Used Form: the author of Evelina
Used Form: the author of Evelina and Cecilia
Used Form: the author of Evelina, Cecilia, and Camilla
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.

Connections

Connections Author name Sort ascending Excerpt
Textual Features Mary Julia Young
MJY foregrounds her own friendship with Anna Maria Crouch, and finds room for such details as the opinions of Crouch's father, Peregrine Phillips , about novelists: he admired Charlotte Smith , Anna Maria Bennett ,...
Textual Features Virginia Woolf
She writes more directly of money, of the riches lavished through the ages on masculine institutions like the ancient universities, but here too her clinching example is one of the imagination: her contrast of the...
Intertextuality and Influence Elizabeth Pipe Wolferstan
A few statements are footnoted to their originators, whom EPW has either paraphrased or versified: Sherlock and Lavater are her favourites, but she also draws on lighter writers like Horace , Swift , and Coleridge
Friends, Associates Anna Williams
Williams enjoyed cordial relations with other members of Johnson's circle, like Elizabeth Carter (who helped with subscriptions for Williams's book when Johnson was dragging his feet) and Hester Thrale (who contributed). Carter counted her a...
Friends, Associates Helen Maria Williams
There she began to frequent Elizabeth Montagu 's bluestocking circle. She was introduced in cultural circles by Andrew Kippis , minister of the church her family attended, and soon knew William Hayley , Sarah Siddons
Occupation Helen Maria Williams
HMW achieved early success as a poet. George Hardinge was trying in autumn 1786 to secure her a Court position similar to that of Frances Burney . He did not succeed in this attempt.
Kennedy, Deborah. Helen Maria Williams and the Age of Revolution. Bucknell University Press.
33-4
Textual Features Helena Wells
HW says she has more respect for the upper classes than some of our modern reformists.
Wells, Helena. Letters on Subjects of Importance to the Happiness of Young Females. L. Peacock; W. Creech.
7
She recommends reading poetry and history, not novels: Novel reading tends to enervate the mind. We rise from...
Reception Elizabeth Sophia Tomlins
Charles Burney the younger reviewed this novel quite favourably for the Monthly Review.
Garside, Peter et al., editors. The English Novel 1770-1829. Oxford University Press.
1: 364
He noted borrowings from his sister 's Evelina and Cecilia, and forecast that the author would improve with...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Elizabeth Sophia Tomlins
Her protagonist, Theresa Morven, has until three years before the story opens been buried in a French convent at the behest of her stepmother, whom, however, she steadfastly refuses to hate. (Her own mother died...
Textual Features Elizabeth Thomas
The range of authors quoted for chapter-headings is similar to that in her last novel, with the notable addition of passages in both prose and poetry by Martha Homely, her own formerly-used pseudonym. Poems...
Textual Production Angela Thirkell
She was anxious about publication, partly because she had not told her parents that she was writing a novel: this led her mentor W. Graham Robertson to liken her to Fanny Burney .
Strickland, Margot. Angela Thirkell: Portrait of a Lady Novelist. Duckworth.
75-6
From...
Textual Features Ann Thicknesse
An introduction explains that this book, although called a novel, will not deal in pathetic tales of love, marvellous prodigies, or even . . . elegant flights of fancy, but only plain simple facts...
Textual Features Tabitha Tenney
Choice of women writers is fairly generous, with excerpts from Hester Mulso Chapone , John Aikin and Anna Letitia Barbauld (Evenings at Home), Susanna Haswell Rowson , Elizabeth Carter , Hester Thrale ,...
Textual Production Sydney Owenson, Lady Morgan
The novel appeared in Dublin, before the London edition of the same year. Owenson dated her preface 2 November 1802. Her payment was said to consist of four free copies.
Garside, Peter et al., editors. The English Novel 1770-1829. Oxford University Press.
2: 176
Campbell, Mary. Lady Morgan: The Life and Times of Sydney Owenson. Pandora.
47
A...
Textual Features Sydney Owenson, Lady Morgan
In setting this novel in remote Donegal, Morgan continued her project of explaining her native land to her English readership. Her Irish hero, Roderick O'Donnel, is that almost unbelievable thing, an Irish gentleman who...

Timeline

1756 or 1757: Frances Greville, in Italy with her family...

Women writers item

1756 or 1757

Frances Greville , in Italy with her family some months after the death of her eldest son (aged around six), composed a poem which became a landmark text, the Ode to [or Prayer for] Indifference.

1780: James Harrison (hitherto chiefly known as...

Writing climate item

1780

James Harrison (hitherto chiefly known as a music publisher) began to issue the handsomely-produced Novelists' Magazine, a weekly serial reprinting of canonical novels.

1782: George Romney painted a picture to illustrate...

Women writers item

1782

George Romney painted a picture to illustrate (after the fact) William Hayley 'a Triumphs of Temper, 1781: Serena, reading Burney 's Evelina. The model was Honora Sneyd .

1784: Henry Fearon, surgeon, published A Treatise...

Building item

1784

Henry Fearon , surgeon, published A Treatise on Cancers, with a New and Successful Method of Operating, Particularly in Cancers of the Breast and Testis.

By 22 July 1797: William Beckford published a second and more...

Women writers item

By 22 July 1797

William Beckford published a second and more marked burlesque attack on women's writing: Azemia: A Descriptive and Sentimental Novel. Interspersed with Pieces of Poetry.

1798: Richard Polwhele published The Unsex'd Females,...

Building item

1798

Richard Polwhele published The Unsex'd Females, his notorious attack on Wollstonecraft and other active radicals.

27 March 1802: The Peace of Amiens ended the war which had...

National or international item

27 March 1802

The Peace of Amiens ended the war which had raged between England and France for nine years.

August 1813: The Critical Review published its first welcome...

Writing climate item

August 1813

The Critical Review published its first welcome to Eaton Stannard Barrett 's famous parody of sentimental novels, The Heroine, or Adventures of the Fair Romance Reader.

Early 1818: William Hazlitt opened On the Living Poets,...

Writing climate item

Early 1818

William Hazlitt opened On the Living Poets, the last of his Lectures on the English Poets, with a statement on gender issues.

9 December 1826: The Literary Gazette printed a Key to Marianne...

Women writers item

9 December 1826

The Literary Gazette printed a Key to Marianne Spencer Hudson 's silver-fork novel, Almack's (titled after the well-known elite gentlemen's club of the same name), which had already reached its second edition this year. The...

1835: Caroline Herschel and Mary Somerville were...

National or international item

1835

Caroline Herschel and Mary Somerville were awarded honorary memberships by the Royal Astronomical Society .

17 June 1843: Julia Charlotte Maitland published, as a...

Women writers item

17 June 1843

Julia Charlotte Maitland published, as a Lady, her Letters fromMadras: during the years 1836-1839.

1864: Famous Girls who have become Illustrious...

Writing climate item

1864

Famous Girls who have become Illustrious Women: Forming Models for Imitation by the Young Women of England, a very popular book of biographical sketches by John M. Darton , was published.

1866: The Royal Society of Arts established a scheme...

National or international item

1866

The Royal Society of Arts established a scheme (believed to be the first in the world) for setting up commemorative plaques on buildings associated with famous people.
Quinn, Ben. “Plaque blues. Cuts hit heritage scheme”. Guardian Weekly, p. 16.

1872: US writer Susan Coolidge (Sarah Chauncy,...

Writing climate item

1872

US writer Susan Coolidge (Sarah Chauncy, or Chauncey, Woolsey) published her highly popular and influential story for girls entitled What Katy Did.
American National Biography. http://www.anb.org/articles/home.html.

Texts

Burney, Frances. A Busy Day. Editor Wallace, Tara Ghoshal, Rutgers University Press, 1984.
Burney, Frances. A Known Scribbler: Frances Burney on Literary Life. Editor Crump, Justine, Broadview, 2002.
Burney, Frances. Brief Reflections Relative to the Emigrant French Clergy. T. Cadell, 1793.
Burney, Frances. Camilla. T. Payne, T. Cadell, Jun., and W. Davies, 1796.
Burney, Frances. Camilla. Editors Bloom, Edward A. and Lillian D. Bloom, Oxford University Press, 1972.
Burney, Frances. Cecilia. T. Payne and Son, and T. Cadell, 1782.
Burney, Frances. Cecilia. Editors Sabor, Peter and Margaret Anne Doody, Oxford University Press, 1999.
Burney, Frances. Diary and Letters of Madame d’’Arblay. Editor Barrett, Charlotte, H. Colburn, 1846.
Burney, Frances. Diary and Letters of Madame d’Arblay. Editors Barrett, Charlotte and Austin Dobson, Macmillan, 1905.
Burney, Frances. Evelina. T. Lowndes, 1778.
Burney, Frances. “Introduction and front matter”. Journals and Letters, edited by Peter Sabor and Lars E. Troide, Penguin, 2001, p. vii - xxviii.
Burney, Frances. Journals and Letters. Editors Sabor, Peter and Lars E. Troide, Penguin, 2001.
Burney, Frances. Memoirs of Doctor Burney. Edward Moxon, 1832.
Burney, Frances. The Complete Plays of Frances Burney. Editor Sabor, Peter, William Pickering, 1995.
Burney, Frances. The Early Diary of Frances Burney, 1768-1778. Editor Ellis, Annie Raine, G. Bell, 1889.
Burney, Frances. The Early Journals and Letters of Fanny Burney. Editors Troide, Lars E. et al., McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2002.
Burney, Frances. The Early Journals and Letters of Fanny Burney. Editors Troide, Lars E. et al., Clarendon Press, 2002.
Burney, Frances. The Journals and Letters of Fanny Burney (Madame D’Arblay). Editors Hemlow, Joyce and Althea Douglas, Clarendon Press, 1984.
Burney, Frances. The Wanderer. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1814.