Novelist and playwright Frances (Fanny) Burney, 1752-1840, was also a prolific writer of journals and letters, beginning with the diary she started at fifteen and continuing until the end of her eventful life. From her youth in London high society to a period in the court of Queen Charlotte and her years interned in France with her husband Alexandre d'Arblay during the Napoleonic Wars, she captured the changing times around her, creating brilliantly comic and candid portraits of those she encountered - including the 'mad' King George, Samuel Johnson, Sir Joshua Reynolds, David Garrick and a charismatic Napoleon Bonaparte. She also describes, in her most moving piece, undergoing a mastectomy at fifty-nine without anaesthetic. Whether a carefree young girl or a mature woman, Fanny Burney's forthright, intimate and wickedly perceptive voice brings her world powerfully to life.

Journals and Letters of Frances Burney (Penguin Classics)

Biographies & Memoirs

Frances Burney

Fanny Burney

Peter Sabor

Lars E. Troide

Victoria Kortes-Papp

Arts & Literature

Penguin Classics

The Wanderer or Female Difficulties is the tale of a penniless emigree from Revolutionary France trying to earn her living in England while guarding her own secrets. Combining the best elements of the Gothic and historical novels, this newly appreciated work is an extraordinary piece of Romantic fiction. Burney's tough comedy offers a satiric view of complacent middle-class insularity that echoes Godwin and Wollstonecraft's attacks on the English social structure. The problems of the new feminism and of the old anti-feminism are explored in the relationship between the heroine and her English patroness and rival, the Wollstonecraftian Elinor Joddrel, and the racism inherent within both the French and British empires is exposed when the emigree disguises herself as a black woman. This edition is fully annotated with appendices on the French Revolution, race relations, amusements, and geography and a previously unpublished manuscript revealing the connection between The Wanderer and Camilla.

The Wanderer (Oxford World's Classics)

Literature & Fiction

British & Irish

Oxford University Press

Textual notes and critical analysis accompany this edition of the eighteenth-century novel depicting the social and moral dilemmas of the young

Camilla (Oxford World's Classics)

Literary

A scholarly edition of journals and letters by Fanny Burney. The edition presents an authoritative text, together with an introduction, commentary notes, and scholarly apparatus.

The Journals and Letters of Fanny Burney: Madame D'Arblay, Vol.1, 1791 to 1792, Letters 1-39

Clarendon Press

Cecilia is an heiress, but she can only keep her fortune if her husband will consent to take her surname. Fanny Burney's unusual love story and deft social satire was much admired on its first publication in 1782 for its subtle interweaving of comedy, humanity, and social analysis. Controversial in its time, this eighteenth-century novel seems entirely fresh in relation to late twentieth-century concerns.

Cecilia, or Memoirs of an Heiress (Virago Modern Classics)

Genre Fiction

Virago Press Ltd.

The Wanderer or, Female Difficulties

Pandora Press

Frances Burney was born on June 13th, 1752 in Lynn Regis (now King’s Lynn).  By the age of 8 Frances had still not learned the alphabet and couldn’t read. She now began a period of self-education, which included devouring the family library and to begin her own ‘scribblings’, these journal writings would document her life and cover the next 72 years.  Her journal writing was accepted but writing novels was frowned upon by her family and friends. Feeling that she had been improper, she burnt her first manuscript, The History of Caroline Evelyn, which she had written in secret.  It was only in 1778 with the anonymous publication of Evelina that her talents were available to the wider world.  She was now a published and admired author.  Despite this success and that of her second novel, Cecilia, in 1785, Frances travelled to the court of King George III and Queen Charlotte and was offered the post of "Keeper of the Robes". Frances hesitated.  She had no wish to be separated from her family, nor to anything that would restrict her time in writing. But, unmarried at 34, she felt obliged to accept and thought that improved social status and income might allow her greater freedom to write.  The years at Court were fruitful but took a toll on her health, writing and relationships and in 1790 she prevailed upon her father to request her release from service. He was successful.  The ideals of the French Revolution had brought support from many English literates for the ideals of equality and social justice. Frances quickly became attached to General Alexandre D'Arblay, an artillery officer who had fled to England. In spite of the objections of her father they were married on July 28th, 1793.  On December 18th, 1794, Frances gave birth to their only child, a son, Alexander.  Frances’s third novel, Camilla, in 1796 earned her £2000 and was enough for them to build a house in Westhumble; Camilla Cottage.  In 1801 D'Arblay was offered service with the government of Napoleon in France, and in 1802 Frances and her son followed him to Paris, where they expected to remain for a year. The outbreak of the war between France and England meant their stay extended for ten years.  In August 1810 Frances developed breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy performed by "7 men in black”. Frances was later able to write about the operation in detail, being conscious through most of it, anesthetics not yet being in use.  With the death of D'Arblay, in 1818, of cancer, Frances moved to London to be near her son. Tragically he died in 1837. Frances, in her last years, was by now retired but entertained many visits from younger members of the Burney family, who gathered to listen to her fascinating accounts and her talents for imitating the people she described.  Frances Burney died on January 6th, 1840.

The Witlings (Early Women Writers 1650-1800, 3)

Colleagues Press

[MP3CD audiobook format in Vinyl case. *NOTE: The MP3CD format requires a compatible audio CD player.] [Read by Emily Rankin, Stefan Rudnicki, Gabrielle de Cuir, Orson Scott Card] [Directed by Claire Bloom] Originally published in 1778,Evelina is Frances Burney's first and most beloved novel. It was a landmark in the development of the novel of manners and went on to influence such enduringly popular authors as Jane Austen. By turns hilarious and grim, witty and lyrical, the story follows young Evelina as she leaves the seclusion of her country home and enters into late eighteenthcentury London societyboth its pleasures and its dangers. Life in eighteenthcentury England is vividly rendered as Evelina is educated in the ways of the world and, eventually, love. As she battles such cruelties as social snobbery and delights in such thrills as pleasure gardens and balls, Evelina strives toward her final triumph, while capturing the hearts of listeners everywhere along the way.

Evelina: or, The History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World

Humor & Satire

Skyboat Media and Blackstone Audio

[Read by Emily Rankin, Stefan Rudnicki, Gabrielle de Cuir, Orson Scott Card] [Directed by Claire Bloom] Originally published in 1778,Evelina is Frances Burney's first and most beloved novel. It was a landmark in the development of the novel of manners and went on to influence such enduringly popular authors as Jane Austen. By turns hilarious and grim, witty and lyrical, the story follows young Evelina as she leaves the seclusion of her country home and enters into late eighteenthcentury London societyboth its pleasures and its dangers. Life in eighteenthcentury England is vividly rendered as Evelina is educated in the ways of the world and, eventually, love. As she battles such cruelties as social snobbery and delights in such thrills as pleasure gardens and balls, Evelina strives toward her final triumph, while capturing the hearts of listeners everywhere along the way.

Evelina, Or, The History Of A Young Lady's Entrance Into The World: By Fanny Burney - Illustrated

Independently published

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Fanny Burney. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Fanny Burney

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Fanny Burney. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Journals and Letters of Frances Burney (Penguin Classics)

The Wanderer (Oxford World's Classics)

Camilla (Oxford World's Classics)

The Journals and Letters of Fanny Burney: Madame D'Arblay, Vol.1, 1791 to 1792, Letters 1-39

Cecilia, or Memoirs of an Heiress (Virago Modern Classics)

The Wanderer or, Female Difficulties

The Witlings (Early Women Writers 1650-1800, 3)

Evelina: or, The History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World

Evelina: or, The History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World

Evelina, Or, The History Of A Young Lady's Entrance Into The World: By Fanny Burney - Illustrated