Fanny Burney

Question 1

When was Fanny Burney born?

Answer 1

b. 1752 d. 1840

Question 2

What other names was she known by?

Answer 2

Frances Burney, Madame d’Arblay

Question 3

How many plays has Burney written?

Answer 3

Eight

Question 4

What was Burney’s first novel?

Answer 4

Evelina (1778)

Question 5

What is Evelina’s full title?

Answer 5

Evelina, or the History of a Young Lady’s Entrance into the World.

Question 6

Was Evelina published anonymously?

Answer 6

Yes, however, its authorship was revealed by the poet George Huddesford in what Burney called a “vile poem”.

Question 7

What type of novel is Evelina?

Answer 7

Epistolary.

Question 8

How many volumes does Evelina have?

Answer 8

Three

Question 9

Who are the main characters in Evelina?

Answer 9

Evelina Anville, her suitor Lord Orville, Reverend Arthur Villars, Sie Clement Willoughby.

Question 10

What was Burney’s second novel?

Answer 10

Cecelia (1782)

Question 11

What is the subtitle of Cecelia?

Answer 11

The memoirs of an heiress.

Question 12

How many editions of Cecilia were published?

Answer 12

At least 51 editions. It was highly successful.

Question 13

What is Cecilia’s surname?

Answer 13

Beverley. This name has significance in the novel because a clause of Cecilia’s inheritance says that to get the money, whoever marries her has to change his surname to Beverley and this causes a lot of conflict.

Question 14

Who does Cecilia ultimately marry?

Answer 14

Mortimer Delvile

Question 15

Which famous novel’s title is said to be inspired by a speech in Cecilia?

Answer 15

Pride and Prejudice (1813)

Question 16

What are the two books by Burney that are mentioned in Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey?

Answer 16

Cecilia (1782) and Camilla (1796). The same dialogue also mentions Maria Edgeworth’s Belinda (1801).

Question 17

What did the Encyclopedia Brittanica say about Evelina in 1971?

Answer 17

“Addressed to the young, the novel has a quality perennially young.”

Question 18

What is the play that Frances Burney wrote in 1779 but remained unpublished as her father thought it too mocking of the Bluestockings?

Answer 18

The Witlings, a dramatic comedy that satirised a wide segment of London society, including the literary world and its pretensions.

Question 19

Who are the main characters in The Witlings?

Answer 19

Celia and Beaufort, lovers kept apart from marriage die to economic insufficiency.

Question 20

When was Camilla published?

Answer 20

Camilla or A Picture of Youth was published in 1796. This novel helped Burney and her husband out of poverty and also helped them to build a house they named Camilla Cottage.

Question 21

What is Camilla about?

Answer 21

Camilla deals with the matrimonial concerns of a group of young people: Camilla Tyrold and her sisters, the sweet tempered Lavinia and the deformed, and extremely kind, Eugenia, and their cousin, the beautiful Indiana Lynmere—and in particular, with the love affair between Camilla herself and her eligible suitor, Edgar Mandlebert.

Question 22

What was Burney’s fourth novel?

Answer 22

The Wanderer, or, Female Difficulties (1814).

Question 23

What is The Wanderer about?

Answer 23

This historical novel with Gothic overtones set during the 1790s tells the story of a mysterious woman who attempts to support herself while hiding her identity. The novel focuses on the difficulties faced by women as they strive for economic and social independence.

Question 24

What did William Hazlitt say about The Wanderer’s focus on women in The Edinburgh Review?

Answer 24

“The difficulties in which [Burney] involves her heroines are indeed, ‘Female Difficulties;’ – they are difficulties created out of nothing.” According to Hazlitt, women did not have problems that could be made into interesting fiction.