Introduction

"But for my Pen," the twenty-two-year-old Frances Burney wrote in 1774, "all the Adventures of this Noble family might sink to oblivion! I am amazed when I consider the greatness of my Importance, the dignity of my Task, & the Novelty of my pursuit!"¹ Inflected by the irony that often characterizes Burney's reflections on her own authorship, this remark might seem self-deprecating or even dismissive. There is, though, a serious side to the mock-heroic manifesto. Burney was constantly mindful—as is demonstrated repeatedly in her letters, journals, and prefatory matter—of her talented family's reputation. She wrote, in part, to promote it, but she also censored, erased, and burned in the service of its protection and preservation.² Thematically and formally, her family's pursuits and aspirations shaped her fictions, her dramatic compositions, and her vast mass of life writing.

If Burney recognized this, then so did other contemporary commentators. An anonymous sonnet published in the Morning Chronicle almost fifty years later, attributed to Charles or Mary Lamb, provides a neat counterpoint to the youthful Burney's recognition that her "Pen" worked in the service of her "Noble family."

To Miss Burney, on her Character of Blanch in "Country Neighbours," a Tale

Bright spirits have arisen to grace the BURNEY name,And some in letters, some in tasteful arts,In learning some have borne distinguished parts;Or sought through science of sweet sounds their fame:And foremost she, renowned for many a taleOf faithful love perplexed, and of that goodOld man, who, as CAMILLA's guardian, stoodIn obstinate virtue clad like coat of mail.Nor dost thou, SARAH, with unequal paceHer steps pursue. The pure romantic veinNo gentler creature ever knew to feignThan thy fine Blanch, young with an elder grace,In all respects without rebuke or blame,Answering the antique freshness of her name.³

At the zenith of the romantic period, then, Lamb was moved to celebrate the "Bright spirits" that "grace the BURNEY name," which was, by 1820, prominent in "letters," "tasteful arts," "learning," and the "science of sweet sounds." The Burney family boasted among its achievements not only Frances's novels but also the works of her father Charles (historian of music), the performances of her sisters Esther and Susanna (musicians), the seafaring accounts of her brother James (sailor), the publications of her brother Charles (collector, critic, and classicist), the fiction of her half sister Sarah Harriet (author of five works of fiction, 1796–1839) and of her stepsister Elizabeth (better known as "Mrs. Meeke," author of twenty-four novels, 1795–1823), and the art of her cousin Edward Francisco Burney (painter and illustrator). The poem places Frances Burney as the "foremost" member of the family, citing her popular tales "Of faithful love perplexed" and giving Ospecial mention to her novel Camilla: or, a Picture of Youth (1796), the story of an unconventional family. But it is careful also to note the "equal pace" with which Sarah Harriet Burney, today a lesser-known writer, pursued her sister's steps, with her character Blanch from "Country Neighbours" acting as an implicit parallel to Camilla's Sir Hugh Tyrold in terms of vividness and popular appeal. The poem therefore carefully diffuses its praise, with Sarah's actual novel meriting more extensive analysis than her sister's, as well as the honor of the titular dedication.

Between them, then, by 1820, the Burneys had excelled in most popular arts of the day, and garnered a considerable degree of celebrity. They were acquainted with most British luminaries working in the fields of literature, art, music, politics, botany, exploration, and court and church circles, and their sociability played an important role in their professional success (Charles Lamb's personal friendship with James Burney probably had something to do with this sonnet's composition). They were also organized and self-important enough to keep voluminous amounts of correspondence (albeit riddled with significant ellipses), and they were famous enough to be the subject of numerous public and private anecdotes, homages, and reviews. Their lives and achievements are therefore exhaustively—perhaps uniquely...