Fanny Burney's Diary

Considering the 18th Century is my current obsession, it's surprising that it's taken this long to review a book or film from this period! Fanny Burney was famous in her own time for writing the smash-hit novels Evelina, Cecilia and Camilla.None of them are very well known these days, probably because she has been overshadowed by the woman she most heavily influenced that came after - Jane Austen.

Having read and enjoyed Evelina, which is substantially racier than Jane Austen and is populated with colourful and very well-drawn characters, it was no surprise to find that Fanny Burney's diary is very interesting and well-written.What I hadn't anticipated is her almost Forrest Gump-like ability to place herself in the right place at the right time in terms of being at the centre of history.

In terms of her own comfort she actually tended to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, but it makes her journal all the more interesting! Amongst other famous or semi-famous people she knew very well were the writer and compiler of the first English dictionary, Dr. Samuel Johnson, and the painter Sir Joshua Reynolds. She was in Bath during the Gordon Riots of 1780 when there were anti-Catholic disturbances in London and in many of the major English towns. She was a servant of Queen Charlotte when the so-called madness of King George the Third began to manifest itself. She lived in London during the French Revolution and knew personally many of the great French princes, princesses and nobles who had fled the country.

She met and married a Frenchman with whom she returned to France during the peace of 1802 and met Napoleon. She was unfortunate enough to be forced to remain in France when war broke out again between France and Britain in 1803. She was in Paris when Napoleon spectacularly returned from exile on Elba in 1814, and was close enough to the battle of Waterloo in 1815 to be frightened by the thunder of the artillery and to see the incredible number of wounded being taken away for treatment.

The beauty of her writing is that everyone, from the highest King down to the most ordinary person is shown as human and portrayed with a warmth that is at times quite moving. She was clearly a very talented woman, but was very uncomfortable with the fame that her compositions brought. This is no doubt partly because she could be very shy. It could also be attributed to the fact that it was unusual for women to be authors in the late 18th Century and because the social standards of the day stipulated that virtuous women did not draw attention to themselves.

Being a popular author certain brought her a good deal of attention and some of the most interesting passages in her books show her embarrassment at the position she often found herself in. A classic moment is when a female aristocratic acquaintance tries to persuade her to read her amateurish composition The Mausoleum of Julia. The title alone conveys something of the sheer awfulness of it's contents!