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FANNY BURNEY, NOVELIST, A STUDY IN TECHNIQUE PDF

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Copyrighted by Eugene White 195?. FANNY BURNEY, NOVELIST A STUDY IN TECHNIQUE BY EUGENE WHITE B.S., University of Illinois, 1946 M.A., University of Illinois, 1947 THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN ENGLISH IN THE GRADUATE COLLEGE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS, 1950 URBANA. ILLINOIS /' UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS THE GRADUATE COLLEGE August 7, 1950 I HEREBY R ECO MAI EXT) THAT THE THESIS PRM>\KED UNDER M\ Eugene White SUPERVISION BY. Fanny Burney, Novelist ENTITLED. A Study in Technique BE ACCEPTED IX PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REOL IREAIEVTS FOR Doctor of Philosophy in English THE DEGREE OF iMy^kocrL J^ll _ ^ ^ M _J #A 1 II ( ll.U -,1 ()1 Till Ms 7 1 liad ut 1 )i_p.u litu nl Recoirmiendation concuned in Committee on Final Examinationf /<JAANuk_//. \)rA^Jiy &J t Required for doctor's degree but not for master's M-HO isK&rr J32 VJL CONTENTS Chapter Page I. The General Picture 1 II. Plot 21 1. Type m 2. Originality 26 5. Probability , g8 4. Arrangement of Events 33 III. Characterization 38 1. Methods Used 38 *(£. Depth and Development 47 IV. Manner of Presentation 61 1. Pictorial vs . Dramatic 61 2. Center of Interest 74 3. Point of view 80 4. Use of Setting 86 V. Style 94 1. Johnsonese 94 2. Diction 97 3. Sentence (Structure Ill 4. Dialogue 117 5. Humor and Satire 1^5 6. Sentiment 131 7. Moral Tone 141 8. Surru.iary 151 VI. Pelat ion ship to Other Authors 155 1. General Influences 155 2. Provost 158 3. Marivaux ICO 4. hicnardson 164 5. Fielding 167 6 . i.Ir s . Hayv:ood 169 7. Johnson 176 6. Her Successors 178 VII. The Total Impression 183 Bibliography 105 •^•£sr^. -_. -j^. ^."YnsrsBsrasgEKSs ^O^O^S^^^ffSISB«SSSSi^^JllSS^iaSaMSiSSW^ei ass.'^j^aEasE^33sas5^i^ssxssrz^z^ziass^a^ Hi !3: My sincere thanks to Professor Arthur W. Secord "^ SE-T-SIVL".1? i^£MCTB<a&333ggyE^33Era^ ^wsaa4gasagJ!^y^j:vi^"^"~^Ml«Knm! is^3SMABA^iaa^!^)a^g3aga3g^^ tr-smm*Ai^&c^israiu^''CTg3KSi BS3B^^W^-S£r"8TT'",'i»i21?** "*£" ^KTU-" rr^ir^ I THE GENiiii^L PICTURE Fanny Burney wrote four novels, Evelina. Cecilia. Camilla, and The Wanderer, the first one published in 1778 and the last In 1814. During that time, from a shy and retiring maiden of twenty-six years she became a successful and lionized author, a close friend of Mrs. Thrale find Dr. Johnson, Keeper of the Robes to Queen Charlotte, and Comtesse Piochard D TArblay, wife of Lafayettefs General D*Arblay. She kept a diary most of her life, she wrote a few mediocre plays, she edited hc'r father's memoirs. She outlived her husband and only son, ijer family and most of her friends, even her suc cessor Jane Austen. She died in 1840, an old lady of eighty-eight. But Fanny Burney has left us records of inestimable value and charm, pictures of the life and times of a by gone age with a social Value almost equivalent "co tneir literary worth. For Miss Burney moved in circles that included an unusual number of tne great and near great in literature, music, statesmanship, art, and fashion. Her father was Dr. Burney, the musician, a gregarious, captivating little man, whose home became a meeting place for the lions of society and those who lionized them. Charles Burney had married Esther Sleepe, of HugenoL de-cent, v/ho bore him three sons and four daughters. The oldest son, James, s. entered the navy at the age of ten, sailed twice around the world with Captain Cook, and eventually became an admiral. The second son, Charles, died early, and the youngest, also named Charles, became a famous Greek scholar and Chaplain to George III. The daughters were Esther or Hetty, Fanny, Susanna, and Charlotte. Mrs. Burney died shortly after Charlotte's birth, and Burney later married Elizabeth Allen, the widow of a wealthy Lynn wine-merchant, who already had three children. Two children were born to the new Mrs. Burney, Richard and Sarah Harriet, the latter of whom became a novelist, though hardly a distinguished one. It may well be imagined, then, that the Burney residence seldom lacked activity. Garrick was a family friend who bounced in at odd hours and entertained the Burney children with his exuberant impromptu act ing and ludicrous mimicry. Kit Smart gave Fanny a rose given him "by a fair lady—though not so fair as youj" George Colman the elder and his wife, the writer Dr. Hawkesworth, the Sheridans, Mrs. Brooke, and Dr. Shebbeare all came within her orbit. To her father's musical evenings came such celebrities as the Italian singer Millico, the composer Sacchini, the violinist Celestini, and Signora Agujari, "detta la Bastardini, from some misfortune that preceded her birth." La Gabriella and her consort Rauzzini failed to measure up to expectations, but then the Agujari had won the hearts of the Burneys. Prince Orloff, the fabulous Russian; came to hear Susan Burney and her cousin play, and the Tahitian Omai, friend of Fanny's brother James, came to dinner and charmed everyone with his perfect manners. Reynolds, Burke, and Hastings all figure in her diaries, along with scores of lesser known but - "^ir ?JLa,3S&3H35S3£: ^K^SEXEasss^ET "JSHam=^=a^q-;^^Si^&asaaESJK1J' i^J^A i&ir^'ttJi sr m ,--* in ,* 3. equally interesting personages. The publication of Evelina brought Fanny into Mrs. Thrale's circle. She lived for long periods at Streatham and was petted and made mock love to by her admired Dr. Johnson, who lived with the Thrales. She met Mrs. Montagu and others of the bluestockings. She became one of Mrs. Thrale's showpieces herself. Then she spent five unhappy years as Keeper of the Robes to Queen Charlotte, but her record of those years has given us the best and most intimate picture of the court and the unfortunate sufferings of George III that has come down to us. The French Revolution drove to England groups of refugees who had been loyal to Louis XVI, and among them, in the little colony headed by Mme. Stael at Juniper Hall, was M. Alexandre D'Arblay, former adjutant-general to Lafayette. Fanny's sister Susan lived at Mickleham, nearby, and became intensely interested in the French group. Fanny was invited down, she and General D'Arblay fell in love, and over the protests of her father she married this handsome foreigner, Catholic and penniless though he was, at the age of forty-one. In spite of its unpromising pros pects, their marriage was a happy one. They lived in Camilla Cottage, built with the proceeds of the novel Camilla, until affairs in France made it advisable for them to go there to look after the General's interests. During her ten-years residence in France, and to defray the expenses of her son's education at Oxford, Madame D'Arblay wrote I most of her fourth and last novel, The Wanderer« or Female k lj\ Difficulties, and had it published in England upon her return i h there. But the vivacity, spontaneity, and youthful high spirits 'It 4. that had captivated London in Evelina and Cecilia were at low ebb in the novels which Madame D'Arblay wrote primarily for money. The first two novels were written for the joy of writing, because Fanny could not help writing. They pictured a society in which she moved as a fascinated observor. Her years at court, her acclaim as an author, her developing consciousness of the instruc tional function of the novel, her experiences in Revolutionary France all had their effect in changing her outlook. She affected a style or unconsciously adopted one that retained and exaggerated all that was bad in her early writing and lost much of what had given it originality and freshness. But the phenomenal success of her first two novels assured her later ones a reading. In the period from 1778 to 1789, according to Joseph Bunn Heidler, most of the correspondence in literary circles centered about Fanny Burney's Evelina and Cecilia. Whether their reactions were favorable or unfavorable, the letter writers of the period were interested in discussing the appeal and the characterization of the novel of manners as written by Miss Burney. In his story of the publisher Mathew Carey, Earl L. Bradsher quotes from a letter to Longman and Company of England, dated April 15, 1817, asking for some arrangement by which Carey's company in New York might receive "such new works that come out as may be likely to bear publication in this country." He v/rites, "The History, from 1700 to 1800, of English Criticism of Prose Fiction," University of Illinois Studies in Language and Literature, XIII (May, 19S8J7 141. Hi . n asEri-jSEarraff^xnErg 5. "We should wish to receive every new work of popularity and particularly those of Miss Porter, Lord Byron, Miss Edgeworth, W. Scott, Leigh Hunt, Author of Waverley, Moore, Miss Burney, Mrs. Taylor, Lady Morgan, Dugald Stewart, etc., etc.»s These are the works, then, which have given Fanny Burney a secure, even though minor, niche in the history of the novel. She made use of the elements she found in her reading, but she added certain new touches that had a great deal to do with shaping the course which the novel was to take. It is our purpose to analyze the technique which Miss Burney used in her novels, to see how she worked and to try to evaluate her success in a field that was relatively uncharted and still suspect. A study of the technique of a novelist can lead not only to a fuller appreciation of his work but to a better understanding of the period In which he wrote. Regardless of his genius he is to some extent the product of his literary and social environ ment. What he makes of his heritage tells us much about him as an individual; what his heritage makes of him tells us much about his times. The content of his work, his ideas, his philosophy, must be matters of first importance. Our first question always is,"What is the author trying to do?" But a deeper insight into what he is trying to do can be gained by seeing how he attempts to do it. His method often reveals more about his thinking and almost always more about the literary influences that have shaped him than his words do. To attempt to discuss writing technique as something apart Mathew Carey (New York, 1912), p. 79.

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