Frances Burney |
About Frances Burney
An Interview with Frances Burney
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Frances Burney (1752–1840), the daughter of Dr Burney, spent her youth in the midst of the London society which included Dr Johnson, Edmund Burke, Sir Joshua Reynolds, David Garrick, the Blue Stocking Circle and many members of the aristocracy. When she published her first novel, Evelina, anonymously in 1778, the revelation of its authorship brought her immediate fame. In 1786 she was appointed second keeper of the robes to Queen Charlotte and in 1793 married General d’Arblay, a French refugee in England. She and her husband were interned by Napoleon and lived in France from 1802 to 1812. Her other major novels are Cecilia (1782) and Camilla (1796). Like Evelina, they take as their theme the entry into the world of a young girl of beauty and understanding but no experience, and expose her to circumstances and events that develop her character. Her novels were admired by Jane Austen. She also wrote The Wanderer, published in 1814, but it was not a success. In 1832 she edited the Memoirs of her father. She was also a prodigious writer of lively letters and journals; her Early Diary 1768–1778 includes sketches of Johnson, Garrick and many others, and her later Diary and Letters 1778–1840 gives a vivid account of her life at court.
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