Frances "Fanny" Burney, 1752 - 1840
Oil on canvas ca. 1785 by Edward Francisco Burney, a cousin
Born: 13 June 1752, King's Lynn, Norfolk, England, UK
Died: 6 January 1840, London, England, UK
Frances Burney was born at King's Lynn, Norfolk on this day in 1752. Her father was a musicologist and music historian whose home attracted a wide circle of distinguished guests, particularly after they Burney's moved to London in 1760. Burney's mother died in 1762 and her father remarried four years later, the expanded family (her stepmother had three children) led to tension. She was pressured to give up writing as being "unladylike" and actually burned her first manuscript at age 15 but began a journal in 1768 that would continue for 72 years. She published Evelina anonymously in 1778. Fearing that publishers would recognize her own writing, as she often was a scribe for her father, she hat to use a disguised hand and her brother represented her with the publisher getting only twenty guineas for the work, which was a huge success. When she was identified, she made friends with many notable literary figures, including Jane Austen and Dr Johnson, and her second novel was also a success, with her name on the cover. In 1785 she met King George III and Queen Charlotte and was offered the post of "Second Keeper of the Robes", a post that elevated her socially, paid her well, but took all her time. In 1793 she married a French refugee, an artillery officer, her third novel provided funds to build a house at Westhumble. They moved to France in 1802, hopeful to recover Alexandre's pre-revolutionary properties. While there she underwent a mastectomy which she was able to document because there was no anaesthesia. After her father died in 1814 she wrote no more fiction, devoting her time to organizing his memoirs and her own journals. She wrote several plays but was not allowed to publish them during her lifetime, they only came to light in 1945 and weren't all published until 1995. Virginia Woolf called her "the mother of English fiction".
Biography from Wikipedia and the Burney Center at McGill University
Additional quotes from Wikiquote. Wikiquote entries are often "sourced" and may include items longer than those included here, particularly for poets, lyricists, and dramatists.
Frances Burney quotes:
Quotes found : 43 — (15 per page, this is page 1 of 3) 1 2 3 Next
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- A private ball this was called ... but Lord! my dear Sir, I believe I saw half the world! permalink
Frances Burney - Evelina (1778) - A little alarm now and then keeps life from stagnation. permalink
Frances Burney - A youthful mind is seldom totally free from ambition; to curb that, is the first step to contentment, since to diminish expectation is to increase enjoyment. permalink
Frances Burney - Evelina (1778) - Application, operating upon a retentive memory, had enabled him to lay by the most ample hoards of erudition; but these, though they rendered him respectable amongst the learned, proved nearly nugatory in his progress through the world, from a total want of skill and penetration to know how or where they might turn to account. Nevertheless, his character was unexceptionable, his manners were quiet, and his fortune was ruined. permalink
Frances Burney - Camilla (1796) - But if the young are never tired of erring in conduct, neither are the older in erring of judgment. permalink
Frances Burney - For my part, I confess I seldom listen to the players: one has so much to do, in looking about and finding out one's acquaintance, that, really, one has no time to mind the stage. One merely comes to meet one's friends, and show that one's alive. permalink
Frances Burney - Generosity without delicacy, like wit without judgement, generally gives as much pain as pleasure. permalink
Frances Burney - Evelina (1778) - How cool, how quiet is true courage! permalink
Frances Burney - How little has situation to do with happiness. permalink
Frances Burney - I am ashamed of confessing that I have nothing to confess. permalink
Frances Burney - I am too inexperienced and ignorant to conduct myself with propriety in this town, where every thing is new to me, and many things are unaccountable and perplexing. permalink
Frances Burney - Evelina (1778) - I cannot be much pleased without an appearance of truth; at least of possibility — I wish the history to be natural though the sentiments are refined; and the characters to be probable, though their behaviour is excelling. permalink
Frances Burney - The Early Journals and Letters of Fanny Burney (1768) - I cannot sleep - great joy is as restless as great sorrow. permalink
Frances Burney - I have been wavering in my mind whether I should ever again touch this journal, unless it were to commit it to the flames — for this same mind of mine would fain persuade me that this journal of mine is a very ridiculous, trifling and useless affair ... but I felt at the same time a regret, a loss of something in forbearing to here unburden myself ... and now that I once more have taken courage to begin, I think I already feel twice the content I did while this dear little book was neglected. permalink
Frances Burney - The Early Journals and Letters of Fanny Burney (1768) - I looked about for some of my acquaintance, but in vain, for I saw not one person that I knew, which is very odd, for all the world seemed there. permalink
Frances Burney - Evelina (1778)
Quotes found : 43 — (15 per page, this is page 1 of 3) 1 2 3 Next
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