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From the much-celebrated author of the satirical novel Evelina (1778), this volume is the collected journals and private correspondence of Fanny Burney, Queen Charlotte’s Keeper of the Robes.

First published posthumously in seven volumes between 1842–1846, this work is comprised of epistolary correspondence and diary excerpts written by Fanny Burney and edited by her niece, Mrs. Barrett. Fanny Burney, also known by her nom de plume, Madame D’Arblay, accepted the post of Keeper of the Robes for the queen consort of King George III in 1786, going on to develop a close friendship with Queen Charlotte and her daughters. Discover this classic illustration of Georgian society, now in a new edition.

Read & Co. History is proudly republishing this volume featuring a biography of the author by Francis Watt and an excerpt from A History of English Literature (1902).

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Histoire

Women

History

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Publié par	Read Books Ltd.
Date de parution	18 avril 2023
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781528798754
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	2 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0500€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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KEEPER OF THE ROBES
THE DIARY AND LETTERS OF MADAME D'ARBLAY
VOLUMES I & II
By
FRANCES BURNEY

First published in 1842

Copyright © 2023 Read & Co. History
This edition is published by Read & Co. History, an imprint of Read & Co.
This book is copyright and may not be reproduced or copied in any way without the express permission of the publisher in writing.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Read & Co. is part of Read Books Ltd. For more information visit www.readandcobooks.co.uk

Contents
FANNY BURNEY
An Excerpt by William Vaughn Moody
CHARLOTTE SOPHIA
A Biography by Francis Watt
PREFACE
MADAME D'ARBLAY
By Lord Macaulay
VOLUME I
1778-1787
1. 1778
MISS BURNEY PUBLISHES HER FIRST NOVEL AND FINDS HERSELF FAMOUS
2. 1779
THE AUTHOR OF “EVELINA” IN SOCIETY: SHE VISITS BRIGHTON AND TUNBRIDGE WELLS
3. 1780-1781
A SEASON AT BATH: MR. THRALE'S DEATH
4. 1781-2
MISS BURNEY EXTENDS THE CIRCLE OF HER ACQUAINTANCE
5. 1782-3-4-
“CECILIA”: A PAEAN OF PRAISE: LAMENTATIONS
6. 1785-6
MISS BURNEY IS FAVOURABLY NOTICED BY THE KING AND QUEEN
7. 1786
MISS BURNEY ENTERS UPON HER COURT DUTIES
8. 1786
ROYAL VISIT TO NUNEHAM, OXFORD AND BLENHEIM
9. 1786-7-
COURT DUTIES AT WINDSOR AND KEW
FOOTNOTES
VOLUME II
1787-1792
10. 1787
COURT DUTIES AT ST. JAMES’S AND WINDSOR
11. 1787-8
COURT DUTIES: SOME VARIATIONS IN THEIR ROUTINE
12. 1788
THE TRIAL OF WARREN HASTINGS
13. 1788
ROYAL VISIT TO CHELTENHAM
14. 1788-9
THE KING’S ILLNESS
15. 1789-
THE KING’S RECOVERY: ROYAL VISIT TO WEYMOUTH
16. 1789-90
MR. FAIRLY’S MARRIAGE: THE HASTINGS TRIAL
17. 1790-1
MISS BURNEY RESIGNS HER PLACE AT COURT
18. 1791-2
REGAINED LIBERTY
FOOTNOTES

FANNY BURNEY
An Excerpt by William Vaughn Moody
With the possible exception of lyric poetry, the novel is the form of literature which has been most successfully practised by women. In the period before Defoe, the most popular writers of romance were women—Mrs. Behn and Mrs. Manley. Miss Sarah Fielding, sister of the novelist, wrote a story, David Simple, which both Richardson and Fielding praised. Later in the century the line of realists, broken by Sterne and Goldsmith, was continued by Miss Fanny Burney (1752–1840), whose first story, Evelina , appeared in 1778. Doctor Johnson, who was her father’s friend, liked the book, and his support had much to do with its immediate success, though his influence on the style of her later books cannot be called happy. With an achieved literary reputation, Miss Burney, who had been glad to get twenty pounds for Evelina , sold her second book, Cecilia (1782), for £250. Soon after this she became a maid of honor to Queen Charlotte; and after escaping from the intolerable constraints of this situation she married General D’Arblay, by whose name she is usually known. At long intervals she followed her early works with two others, which are now forgotten, but her Diary remains one of the important documents of the time.
HER NOVELS
Evelina is the story of a young girl’s introduction to the great world, told chiefly by herself in letters to her guardian. Her path is beset by rival suitors, and made doubtful by a mystery about her own birth; but her course is guided steadily by conscience and propriety. Indeed, both Evelina and Cecilia are of the family of Clarissa: both are a bit prudish, overscrupulous, oversensitive. The other characters are men and women drawn from nature, as Macaulay says, but not from life, each being developed in accordance with a single dominant passion or peculiarity. Like her model, Richardson, Miss Burney wrote to correct the evils of the time. Her minor characters were intended to make various faults and affectations contemptible or ridiculous, through an extravagant presentation of them. But as the element of truth is largely present in successful satire, it follows that Miss Burney’s novels give us fair pictures of the age in which she lived. In Evelina we see reflected the uncouthness of the middle classes, the boorishness of their amusements, and their fondness for practical jokes; and in Cecilia the studies of contemporary life are still more detailed. Altogether Miss Burney’s work will live, if not by its intrinsic interest, at least as a document of importance in the social history of England.
An excerpt from A History of English Literature , 1902

CHARLOTTE SOPHIA
A Biography by Francis Watt
Queen of George III, King of England, was the youngest daughter of Charles Lewis, brother of Frederic, third duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. When a young girl she was so distressed at the ravages of the Prussian troops on a relative's territory, that she wrote a letter to their king begging him to restrain them. This letter found its way to England, and is said to have done something to direct the attention of the English court to her as a suitable consort for George (Mahon, History of England , iv. 331, 1846). The inquiries made resulted in a formal proposal, which was accepted, and the princess set off for England. The voyage from Cuxhaven to Harwich took ten days, for the ship was delayed by contrary winds. Charlotte beguiled the time by practising English tunes on the harpsichord. On 7 Sept. 1761 she landed in England. The next day she saw George for the first time at St. James's. From that moment till the king's illness she said that she never knew real sorrow. They were married late that same evening. Their coronation took place on 22 Sept. of that year (a minute description is given in Richard Thomson's Faithful Account, &c., 1820). Her appearance at this time is briefly described by Horace Walpole: 'She is not tall nor a beauty. Pale and very thin; but looks sensible and genteel. Her hair is darkish and fine; her forehead low, her nose very well, except the nostrils spreading too wide. The mouth has the same fault, but her teeth are good. She talks a great deal, and French tolerably' ( Letters , iii. 434).
The records of Charlotte's life are entirely of a domestic nature. She was merely a lay figure in the numerous state pageants in which her position obliged her to take part, and she had no interest in nor influence over English politics, which she probably scarcely understood. The king, though a devoted husband, never discussed affairs of state with her. She was a woman of little ability, but she certainly acted up to her own standard of duty. Court life during this long reign was perfectly decorous, and it must be added very dull and colourless. Scandal could only say of her that she was somewhat mean in money matters; but this was probably from early training (the story of an intrigue with the Chevalier d'Eon hardly requires serious mention; see Thom, Queen Charlotte and the Chevalier d'Eon, reprinted from Notes and Queries, 1867). In 1788, when the king became ill, the care of his person and the disposition of his household were placed in her hands, and in 1810, when, on the death of the Princess Amelia, George became permanently insane, much the same arrangements were made.
The queen died at Kew 17 Nov. 1818, and was buried in St. George's Chapel, Windsor. Of the fifteen children born of her marriage, the last three, Octavius, Alfred, and Amelia, predeceased their mother.
A biography from Dictionary of National Biography, Volume 10, 1885-1900

PREFACE
“The Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay,” edited by her niece, Mrs. Barrett, were originally published in seven volumes, during the years 1842-1846. The work comprised but a portion of the diary and voluminous correspondence of its gifted writer, for the selection of which Madame D'Arblay, herself in part, and in part Mrs. Barrett, were responsible. From this selection the present one has been made, which, it is believed, will be found to include all the most valuable and interesting passages of the original. We can at least claim for this, the first popular edition of the Diary, that we have scrupulously fulfilled Madame D'Arblay's injunction to her former editor, “that whatever might be effaced or omitted, nothing should in anywise be altered or added to her records.”
Of the Diary itself it is hardly necessary here to say anything in praise. It has long been acknowledged a classic; it is indubitably the most entertaining, in some respects the most valuable, work of its kind in the English language, Regarded as a series of pictures of the society of the time, the Diary is unsurpassed for vivid Colouring and truthful delineation. As such alone it would possess a strong claim upon our attention, but how largely is our interest increased, when we find that the figures which fill the most prominent positions in the foreground of these pictures, are those of the most noble, most gifted, and Most distinguished men of the day! To mention but a few.

MADAME D'ARBLAY
By Lord Macaulay
Frances Burney was descended from a family which bore the name of Macburney, and which, though probably of Irish origin, had been long settled in Shropshire and was possessed of considerable estates in that county. Unhappily, many years before her birth, the Macburneys began, as if of set purpose and in a spirit of determined rivalry, to expose and ruin themselves. The heir apparent, Mr. James Macburney offended his father by making a runaway match with an actress from Goodman's-fields—The old gentleman could devise no more judicious mode of wreaking vengeance on his undutiful boy than by marrying the cook. The cook gave birth to a son, named Joseph, who succeeded to all the lands of the family, while James was cut off with a shilling.