Book Description

Volume One is the first of a projected twelve-volume edition of Burney's early journals and letters and covers the years 1768-73. This edition reproduces her earliest journals in their original form, replacing omitted and altered passages. It shows her development as an artist and contains typically vivid sketches of her family, friends, and acquaintances in London and the country. Further volumes will cover the so-called "Streatham Years" (1778-86, 4 vols.) and "Court Years" (1786-91, 6 vols.). These will carry her through the period of her greatest fame as the author of the novels Evelina (1778) and Cecilia (1782), and will end with her exit from the Court of King George III and Queen Charlotte after five exhausting years of service to the Queen as Second Keeper of the Robes. Eighteenth-century scholars generally regard Fanny's early journals as her freshest and most appealing. This edition complements Joyce Hemlow's Oxford edition of Burney's letters and journals from 1791 to 1840 (12 vols., Oxford, 1972-84). While the early journals have been printed before, Lars Troide's edition will provide the first full text of Fanny's early journals, accompanied by thorough and accurate annotations which fully explicate the context in which the journals were written.