Evelina - Burney, Fanny

. .

Résumé :
Evelina, or the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World is a novel written by English author Fanny Burney and first published in 1778. Although published anonymously, its authorship was revealed by the poet George Huddesford in what Burney called a vile poem.In this 3-volume epistolary novel, title character Evelina is the unacknowledged but legitimate daughter of a dissipated English aristocrat, thus raised in rural seclusion until her 17th year. Through a series of humorous events that take place in London and the resort town of Hotwells, near Bristol, Evelina learns to navigate the complex layers of 18th-century society and come under the eye of a distinguished nobleman with whom a romantic relationship is formed in the latter part of the novel. This sentimental novel, which has notions of sensibility and early romanticism, satirizes the society in which it is set and is a significant precursor to the work of Jane Austen and Maria Edgeworth, whose novels explore many of the same issues.

Biographie:
Frances Burney, an English satirical author, playwright, and diarist (13 June 1752 - 6 January 1840), was also known by the names Fanny Burney and, subsequently, Madame d'Arblay. She served as George III's queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz's Keeper of the Robes from 1786 to 1790. At the age of 41, she wed General Alexandre d'Arblay, a French exile, in 1793. Following a lengthy writing career and travels during the war that left her stranded in France for more than ten years, she made her home in Bath, England, where she passed away on January 6, 1840. Evelina (1778), the first of her four books, was the most popular and is still her best-known work. Cecilia (1782) came next. During her life, the majority of her theater plays were never performed. Forty-nine years after her death in 1889, she produced a memoir of her father (1832) and several letters and journals, which have been published piecemeal since then. Frances Burney wrote plays, diaries, and novels. She authored a total of twenty-five volumes of journals and letters, eight plays, four novels, and one biography. She has earned recognition from critics as a stand-alone author, but she also predicted satirical novelists of manners like Jane Austen and William Makepeace Thackeray.

Sommaire:
Frances Burney (1752-1840), better known as Fanny Burney, was an English dramatist and writer. She contributed significantly to the growth of the book as a genre and was one of the most well-known female authors of her day. Burney was born into a low-income household in King's Lynn, Norfolk, England. Charles Burney, her father, was a well-known expert in music history. Burney released Evelina, her first book, under an assumed name in 1778, to tremendous public and critical acclaim. Burney published many additional books after Evelina, including Cecilia (1782) and Camilla (1796). Strong female heroes who struggled with moral decisions and cultural expectations were a common theme in Burney's books. Burney created plays, diaries, and letters in addition to novels. Burney struggled with both emotional and financial issues throughout her life, despite her literary achievement. She had a son via her marriage to General Alexandre D'Arblay, a French immigrant. The death of her spouse, as well as other hardships with money and health, characterized Burney's latter years. The contributions Fanny Burney made to English literature and her status as a pioneering female author have been acknowledged and honored....