Book description
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.
Frances Burney (1752-1840) established her reputation with her novel,
'Evelina' (1778). After a period in Queen Charlotte's court, she and
her husband, Alexander d'Arblay, were interned by Napoleon and lived
in France until 1815. Widowed in 1818, she spent the rest of her life
in London.
Peter Sabor is Professor of English at Laval University, Quebec.
Lars E Troide is Professor of English and Director of the Burney
Papers Project at McGill University, Montreal.
