Wanderer, The.
Inscribed to her Sister
a Fellow Novelist
[Burney, Fanny]. The Wanderer; or, Female Difficulties. By the author of Evelina; Cecilia; and Camilla. In five volumes. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1814.
5 vols., 12mo.; occasional marginal repairs; minor spotting; contemporary red half-morocco, rebacked marbled boards. In a specially made calf-backed slipcase.
Likely a proof copy of Burney’s final work—the sheets appear to be on proofing paper—in five volumes, dedicated to her father: To Doctor Burney, F.R.S. and correspondent to the Institute of France. Burney signs the twenty-one page dedication with her married name, F.B. d’Arblay. Volume One lacks leaves C6-7. The Wanderer, with her earlier, better-known works, Evelina and Cecilia, provided a model for the next generation of women writers, including Jane Austen who writes of Burney in Northanger Abbey, and Maria Edgeworth.
A presentation copy, inscribed opposite the title page of volume one to her youngest half-sister: For my dear sister Sarah / from the Author. With marginal pencil lines—presumably Sarah’s—marking Burney’s three-plus page defense of the novel as a form. Sarah Burney, (?1770-1844), youngest daughter of Charles Burney, a music historian, was also a novelist. Her first and most successful book was Clarentine (1796); her final work, Country Neighbors (1820), appeared nearly twenty-five years later.
As a proof copy, this is likely one of the earliest copies Burney received; she turned it over to her young sister and fellow author who, by her markings, showed a clear sympathy with her older sister’s literary sensibilities.
The Wanderer departs from Burney’s usual themes about London society and life among the bourgeoisie; in this book, Burney focuses on the plight of a poor, unmarried woman and her experience trying to survive on her own in England.
Burney (1752-1840) started writing her first book – the acclaimed Evelina – at age 15, but did not publish it until she was 26. The critical response from this book won her admission to various literary salons; her life from this period was conscientiously documented and preserved by her in journals, manuscripts and correspondence, which she referred to as her “Mass of Manuscripts.” From 1787 to 1791 she acted as the second keeper of the robes in the court of Queen Charlotte. She married General d’Arbley, with whom she lived in France between 1802 and 1812. Other writings include Witlings; Cecilia (1782); Camilla (1796); and the Memoirs of Dr. Burney (published in three volumes, the first appearing in 1832). The Diary and Letters of Madame d’Arbley was posthumously published between 1842 and 1846.
“Fanny Burney.” Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2nd ed. 17 Vols. Gale Research, 1998.
Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2007. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC
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