Burnie, Fanny

The daughter of the famous music historian, organist and composer Charles Burney and a mother of French descent and the Catholic religion (her father, grandfather Fanny by the name of Dubois, was a French emigrant to England). At the age of ten, Bernie lost her mother; the stepmother (the father remarried in 1766 ) did not enjoy her love, nor the love of the other five children (the elder brother Fanny James later became an admiral and accompanied Cook on his last two trips). The father preferred other daughters, Fanny, who grew up alone, later learned to write. She was generally self-taught, while her two sisters were sent to study in Paris : her father’s library became Fanny’s school, primarily the works of Plutarch and Shakespeare . At 16, she began to keep a diary.

From her youth, Bernie entered the higher circles of London , constantly interacted with Samuel Johnson , Burke , Reynolds and others, was a member of the Blue Stockings women's club, where, in addition to those listed, actor David Garrick , writers Richardson , James Boswell , Horace Walpole regularly visited , Joanna Bailey , Elizabeth Carter and others. In 1786 she was appointed the second keeper of Queen Charlotte’s wardrobe and remained in this position until 1790 , leaving her for health reasons and maintaining good relations with the royal court.

In 1792 she met the French general Alexander D'Arblay, who had just emigrated to England, and became close to a circle of French emigrants in London. D'Arble introduced Bernie to Madame de Stael . In 1793, Bernie and D'Arble were married, in 1794 they had a son. In 1801, the general was called up for service by Napoleon Bonaparte , his wife and son accompanied him to Paris. In connection with the outbreak of war between France and England, the family was interned for ten years ( 1802 - 1812 ) in France. Bernie developed breast cancer, she underwent a serious operation without anesthesia, and wrote about her, out of habit, a detailed report (see: [1] ). In 1815, General D'Arblet as part of the British Royal Guard participated in hostilities against Napoleon, who left the island of Elba ( One hundred days ), was wounded. Bernie, who was leaving for London to bury her father ( 1814 ), joined her recovering spouse in Trier , and in 1815 they returned to England together. After the death of her husband ( 1818 ), Bernie was no longer engaged in literature. In 1832, she published her father's Memoirs.

Anticipating romanticism , written in an epistolary or autobiographical form, psychologically reliable and observational to the outside world, Bernie’s novels “Evelina” ( 1778 , published anonymously, reprinted 1965 ), “Cecilia” ( 1782 ), “Camilla” ( 1796 ), her satirical comedies (Love and Fashion, 1799 , and others) were very successful with contemporaries and contemporaries, even crowned persons and the entire court read them. However, for posterity, Fanny Burney remained almost exclusively the author of the diaries that she kept throughout her life and which were published after her death. Such are the "Early Diaries 1768 - 1778 " (publ. 1889 ), which give a picture of the literary and social life of Britain of those years, and the later "Diaries and Letters 1778 - 1840 " (publ. 1842 - 1846 ), in which much attention is paid to details court life.

Burnie’s novels were read and appreciated by Jane Austen (the title of her main novel “ Pride and Prejudice ” is a quote from Bernie’s novel “Cecilia”), and her diaries were used by W. M. Thackeray describing the Battle of Waterloo in Vanity Fair . Bernie's "Diaries" are highly praised by Virginia Woolf . Her meaning was fully realized in the 20th century , when she was called the "mother of English prose."

• The Journal and Letters of Fanny Burney (Madame D'Arblay) 1791-1840. 12 vols. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1972-1984

• From the diaries. Per. A. Livergant. // Fatherland of caricatures and parodies. M .: UFO, 2009 .-- S. 697-719.

• Dobson A. Fanny Burney (Madame d'Arblay). New York; London: Macmillan & Co., 1903
• Tourtellot AB Be loved no more; the life and environment of Fanny Burney. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1938.
• Hemlow J. The History of Fanny Burney. London: Oxford UP, 1958
• White E. Fanny Burney, novelist; a study in technique: Evelina, Cecilia, Camilla, The wanderer. Hamden: Shoe String Press, 1960
• Gérin W. The young Fanny Burney. London New York: T. Nelson, 1961
• Adelstein ME Fanny Burney. New York: Twayne Publishers Inc., 1968
• Meyer Spacks PA Imagining a self: autobiography and novel in eighteenth-century England. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1976
• Devlin DD The Novels and Journals of Frances Burney. Hampshire: Macmillan Press Ltd., 1987
• Doody MA Frances Burney: The Life in The Works. New Jersey: Rutgers UP, 1988.
• Bloom H. Fanny Burney's Evelina. New York: Chelsea House, 1988
• Epstein J. The Iron Pen: Frances Burney and the Politics of Women's Writing. Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 1989.
• Simons J. Diaries and Journals of Literary Women from Fanny Burney to Virginia Woolfe. Hampshire: Macmillan Press Ltd., 1990
• Harman C. Fanny Burney: a biography. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001
• Rizzo BW The early journals and letters of Fanny Burney. Montréal; London: McGill-Queen's UP, 2002
• Nicolson N. Fanny Burney: the mother of English fiction. London: Short Books, 2002.

• Fanny Burnie Society Website
• Fanny Burnie Center Website