Frances Burney's first and most enduringly popular novel is a vivid, satirical, and seductive account of the pleasures and dangers of fashionable life in late eighteenth-century London. As she describes her heroine's entry into society, womanhood and, inevitably, love, Burney exposes the vulnerability of female innocence in an image-conscious and ...more
Cecilia is an heiress, but she can only keep her fortune if her husband will consent to take her surname. Fanny Burney's unusual love story and deft social satire was much admired on its first publication in 1782 for its subtle interweaving of comedy, humanity, and social analysis. Controversial in its time, this eighteenth-century novel seems enti...more
Scarce less unhappy in her decision than in her uncertainty and every way dissatisfied with her situation her views and herself Cecilia was still so distressed and uncomfortable when Delvile called the next morning that he could not discover what her determination had been and fearfully enquired his doom with hardly any hope of finding favour...more
"Such an entertaining read . . . a diarist ranking alongside Pepys for her insights into the world in which she lived." (The Guardian, London) Written during a seventy-year period, from 1768 to 1839, Frances Burney's letters and journals provide a unique insight into her life and times. Distinguished by their remarkable range and variety, they rec...more
Set in England during the period of the French Revolution, The Wanderer chronicles the ordeals of an emigree's escape from France and the Terror and her attempts to earn a living while guarding her own secrets. Tracing the heroine's progress through a cross-section of English working life, this novel covers various social issues--from racism, to f...more
First published in 1778, this novel of manners tells the story of Evelina, a young woman raised in rural obscurity who is thrust into London's fashionable society at the age of eighteen. There, she experiences a sequence of humorous events at balls, theatres, and gardens that teach her how quickly she must learn to navigate social snobbery and veil...more
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Fanny Burney's lighthearted first novel, completed after nine years of secret labor, was published anonymously in January 1778. Before the end of that year, it had gone through four editions--a huge popular success. In Burney's own words, it is the story, written in letters, of a young woman "of obscure birth, but conspicuous beauty," who "makes, a...more
Fanny Burney's lighthearted first novel, completed after nine years of secret labor, was published anonymously in January 1778. Before the end of that year, it had gone through four editions--a huge popular success. In Burney's own words, it is the story, written in letters, of a young woman "of obscure birth, but conspicuous beauty," who "makes, a...more
Fanny Burney's lighthearted first novel, completed after nine years of secret labor, was published anonymously in January 1778. Before the end of that year, it had gone through four editions--a huge popular success. In Burney's own words, it is the story, written in letters, of a young woman "of obscure birth, but conspicuous beauty," who "makes, a...more
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