Frances Burney d'Arblay


In her long life that spanned five reigns, Frances Burney d'Arblay (1752-1840) created a new genre in the English novel, chronicled events ranging from George III's mad crisis to the aftermath of Waterloo, and wrote comedies that could have rivalled Sheridan's had they been produced.

She was born June 13, 1752, in King's Lynn, Norfolk, the daughter of Esther Sleepe Burney and music historian Dr. Charles Burney. From the time she learned her alphabet, she was a writer, composing odes, plays, songs, farces, and poems at an early age. She burned them all at age 15, most likely under the influence of her stepmother, who didn't think it appropriate for women to write. But Frances Burney's urge to write could not be stifled. At age 16, she began the diary that would chronicle personal and public events from the early reign of George III to the dawn of the Victoria age. These included first-hand accounts of the Johnson-Boswell circle, the trial of Warren Hastings, George III's mad crisis, Napoleonic France, a mastectomy without anaesthesia, and the aftermath of the battle of Waterloo, which found her nursing the stream of English wounded evacuated from the battlefield.

She knew luminaries such as David Garrick, Sir Joshua Reynolds, James Boswell, and Samuel Johnson through her father, and her early diaries chronicle evenings spent in this circle at home.

Her first novel, Evelina, was published anonymously in 1778. It was written in secret and in a disguised hand because publishers were familiar with her handwriting through her work as an amanuensis for her father. With Evelina, she created a new school of fiction in English, one in which women in society were portrayed in realistic, contemporary circumstances. She brought new dynamism to portrayals of personal relationships and familiar home life. The "comedy of manners" genre in which she worked paved the way for Jane Austen, Maria Edgeworth, and other 19th-century writers. Evelina's mix of social comedy, realism, and wit made it an instant success, keeping Edmund Burke up all night reading and leading London society to speculate on the identity of the writer, who was universally assumed to be a man.

Evelina's great success (even Queen Charlotte and the royal princesses were allowed to read the book) reconciled her father to his daughter's authorship. She was taken up by literary and high society and became the first woman to make writing novels respectable.

Her second novel, Cecilia, published in 1782, earned her more fame. Even Napoleon would read it and compliment her husband, General Alexandre d'Arblay, about it. Jane Austen took the title of Pride and Prejudice from the closing chapter of Cecilia, and the plot of Pride and Prejudice has some noticable similarities with that of Cecilia.

Her first theatrical comedy, The Witlings, was, however, surpressed by her father, even though Sheridan had agreed to produce it. While novel writing was now deemed at least somewhat respectable for women, writing for the theatre was out of bounds for Dr. Burney's daughter. Frances Burney saw one tragedy, Edwy and Elgiva, produced during her lifetime. The rest of her plays would have to wait until the late 20th century before a critical assessment could be made of them. All but two of her plays were published for the first time only in 1995.

Novel writing for Frances Burney ceased during the five years (1786-91) that she was assistant Keeper of the Robes to Queen Charlotte, and her diaries chronicle much detail about the royal family and court life, including George III's sanity crisis. She began a number of her tragedies during these years.

Frances Burney left court in 1791, and in 1793, against her father's wishes, she married Gen. Alexandre d'Arblay, Lafayette's aide de camp, who had fled France for England after the rise of Robespierre. The couple had one son and were extraordinarily devoted to each other.

Her third novel, Camilla, was published by subscription in 1796. The 36-page subscription list reads like a who's who of late 18th-century English society. Among the subscribers was a Miss J. Austen, Steventon. It is believed that the only time Jane Austen's name appeared in print during her lifetime was as a subscriber to Burney's third novel.

In hopes of recovering property lost during the French Revolution, Gen. d'Arblay moved his family to France in 1802, a temporary arrangement that lasted 10 years because the Peace of Amiens ended while the family was still in France. While there, Frances Burney d'Arblay made medical history by chronicling her mastectomy without anaesthesia. Also, during this time, she wrote her fourth and final novel, The Wanderer, published in 1814 after the family returned to England. The book, although not well-received by reviewers at the time, has recently received new attention for its realistic, pre-Victoria portrayal of conditions for working women.

The next year, she remained near her husband, who was fighting with French Royalists against Napoleon, and refused to flee Brussels when rumours swept through that Napoleon had won at Waterloo. She stayed and helped nurse the English wounded that streamed off the battlefield for weeks afterward. Scholars believe that Thackeray drew upon her accounts of this period for scenes in Vanity Fair, published in 1848.

After her father's death in 1814 and her husband's death in 1818, Frances Burney d'Arblay wrote no more fiction. Her literary effort until the end of her life focused on a memoir of her father, published in 1832, and the editing of her own now monumental papers, which were first published as the Letters and Diaries of Madame d'Arblay after her death in 1840.

Although heavily bowdlerized versions of the diaries and letters were published in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it wasn't until Dr. Joyce Hemlow published her landmark biography, The History of Fanny Burney, in 1958 that the full impact of her contribution to literature and letters began to be better appreciated. Dr. Hemlow's 12-volume Journals and Letters of Fanny Burney (Madame d'Arblay), which covers the years from 1791 to 1840, also made a great contribution to the contemporary recognition of Burney's canonical status. The early diaries, complete for the first time, are currently published in a series edited by Dr. Lars Troide, Dr. Stewart Cooke, Dr. Betty Rizzo, and others. Critical appreciation of Frances Burney's novels and plays continues to grow, sparked by new interest in 18th-century women writers.


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