Frances Burney

Frances Burney was courted by many men during her youth though none of the courtships led to marriage. During the French Revolution, she met a group of French exiles and fell in love with General Alexandre D'Arblay, a hero of the Revolution. The couple married on 28 July 1793 and had one son.

Her husband was offered service with the government of Napoleon Bonaparte in France in 1801 and the next year she joined him with their son. Even though they were meant to stay in France for just one year, their stay got extended due to the renewal of the Napoleonic Wars. The family returned to England in the mid 1810s.

Frances Burney outlived both her husband and her son, and died on 6 January 1840.

Frances Burney was born on 13 June 1752, in Lynn Regis, England, to Dr. Charles Burney and Esther Sleepe Burney, as one of their six children. Her father was a famed music historian, composer and musician. Her mother, a warm and intelligent woman, was the daughter of a French refugee named Dubois.

Her father favored her sisters Esther and Susanna over her. He sent Esther and Susanna to be educated in Paris while Frances was left home. She educated herself by reading voraciously from the family collection and started writing when she was around ten.

The death of her mother in 1762 was a big blow to the young girl and she sought solace in the comfort of books. Frances found some much needed support from a family friend Samuel Crisp who encouraged her to write.

Her father remarried in 1767; his new wife was Elizabeth Allen, the wealthy widow of a wine merchant. This marriage produced three more children. The relationship between Frances and her step-mother was tense and unhappy.

Due to the presence of her step-mother, Frances felt pressurized to give up writing. In frustration, she even burnt her first manuscript, ‘The History of Caroline Evelyn’, which she had written in secret. However, she continued writing her diaries.

In 1778, her first novel ‘Evelina: Or The History of A Young Lady's Entrance into the World’ was anonymously published by Thomas Lowndes who found the story interesting after reading its first volume. It was published without her father’s knowledge.

The novel went on to be a critical success, and received praise from many prominent individuals including the statesman Edmund Burke and literary critic Dr Johnson. Her realistic yet comical portrayal of the London society earned her many fans. Eventually her identity as the author was revealed and she was accepted warmly by the public as a budding woman writer.

Encouraged by the reception of her debut novel, Frances Burney began working on a dramatic comedy called ‘The Witlings’, satirizing a wide segment of the London society. However, her father and the family friend Samuel Crisp thought it would offend some of the public, so she chose not to publish it at that time.

In 1782, she published ‘Cecilia, or Memoirs of an Heiress’ which was also well received. The publishers printed 2000 copies of the first edition which were quickly sold out and the novel was reprinted at least twice within a year. The novel cast a lasting influence on Jane Austen who was much inspired by Burney’s writing.

Her success as a novelist made her very popular and in 1785, Queen Charlotte offered her the post of "Keeper of the Robes", with a salary of £200 per annum. Even though Burney was initially reluctant to accept the offer, she eventually did so in 1786.

Frances Burney’s best known work is the novel ‘Evelina or the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World’ which revolves around the life of an unacknowledged, but legitimate daughter of a dissipated English aristocrat. A witty satire of a wealthy young girl’s life in 18th century England, the novel is described as a "landmark in the development of the novel of manners" by ‘Encyclopedia Britannica’.