I have just finished reading Evelina, Frances Burney’s first novel, a book that was greatly enjoyed by Jane Austen and is, in some ways, a source book for some of Jane Austen’s own writings.
Fanny Burney, as we once called her, had an interesting and varied life and lived to a ripe old age. She was born in 1752 and died in 1840. (Compare and contrast this with Jane Austen, born 1775, and died 1817.) Her social reach was much greater than Miss Austen’s as well; whereas Jane spent most of her life in quiet retirement, Fanny Burney knew some of the great men and women of her age, and was Mistress of the Robes to Queen Charlotte, as well as enjoying great literary repute in her own lifetime, something that Jane Austen only began to taste right at the end of her life.
