Fanny Burney
1752–1840
In the robust world of the Age of Johnson, where novel
writing was not considered a suitable occupation for a lady, Fanny Burney
succeeded like no other woman. Small in stature, shy, and entirely
selfeducated, she had neither family money nor social status. Yet she carved
out a respectable place for herself in society with her popular novels and
secured her place in history with her richly detailed diary, first published a
few years after her death. Critics today tend to view her as Jane Austen’s
predecessor and not exactly her literary equal, but Burney’s novels outsold
Austen’s in their day, and Burney herself had a much more worldly and varied
life. She counted Samuel Johnson and other members of his influential Literary
Club among her friends. She also knew the king and queen of England personally,
once chatted with the French king Louis XVIII, and even got a glimpse of
Napoleon himself.
Out of Her Father’s Shadow
She was born Frances Burney, the middle child in a large,
close family. Both of her parents were musicians, and her father had a
doctorate in music from Oxford. After the death of her mother, she devoted
herself to her father’s career, acting as his secretary and helping him write
his ambitious history of music. Dr. Burney’s growing reputation first brought
her into contact with leading artists and intellectuals. With the spotlight on her
father, Burney wrote for herself in secret and published all four of her novels
anonymously. Even her father didn’t know she was writing until after the
runaway success of her first novel, Evelina (1778).
Literary Celebrity
The popularity of Fanny Burney’s novels didn’t make her
rich, but it did enhance her social standing. She became a fixture in literary
circles and gained an appointment at the court of George III. In 1793, she met
a group of liberal French émigrés, among them a handsome officer named D’Arblay
(därPblAQ) who won her heart. The couple had only a modest income, but the
marriage was a happy one and produced a son. D’Arblay supported his wife’s
career by serving as her secretary, sometimes even copying manuscript pages for
her. Burney lived 87 years, an unusually long life for the time. She survived
cancer, exile in France during the Napoleonic Wars, and the deaths of both her
husband and her son.