Madame D'Arblay's Place in the Development 

 of the English Novel 



By Will Taliaferro Hale, Ph.D. 

 Department of English, Indiana University. 



I. Introduction 



The object of this study is to define Madame D'Arblay's place 

 in the development of the English novel. Alt ho much has been 

 written concerning the life of this brilliant woman, there has been no 

 thorogoing treatment of her novels. Evelina and Cecilia, it is true, 

 have received a certain amount of examination, and the more obvious 

 traits have been indicated; but the critics have dismissed Camilla 

 with a few cursory references, and have barely mentioned The 

 Wanderer. In this investigation, which comprises a detailed study of 

 the four novels, the attempt is made not only to point out the general 

 characteristics, but to trace the progress of their development. In 

 particular, the aim has been to determine the nature of the long 

 neglected Camilla and The Wanderer, and show why they were 

 never readable. 



Madame D'Arblay, better known by her maiden name of Frances 

 (or Fanny) Burney, was born at Kings Lynn, Norfolk, in 1752. When 

 eight years old, she moved to London, and there, while her father. 

 Dr. Charles Burney, gave music lessons and filled social engagements, 

 she acquired what education she could pick up at home. At ten she 

 began scribbling stories, and had completed a novel before she was 

 fifteen ; but on account of the opposition of her stepmother, she burn- 

 ed all her manuscripts, and did not venture to offer a work to the pub- 

 lic until her twenty-seventh year. This masterpiece. The History of 

 Evelina (1778), which the great Dodsley refused to pubhsh, had at 

 once a phenomenal success. It ran thru four editions, and won for 

 its young author the friendship of Burke, Reynolds, and Johnson. 

 In 1782, she published her second novel, Cecilia, the first edition of 

 which, consisting of two thousand copies, was sold in three months. 



The brightest literary career now lay before her, but under the 

 influence of her father, who had an undue appreciation of royalty, 



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