BURNEY, Frances, a popular novelist of the last century, was the eldest daughter of the historian of music, and was
born at Lynn in Norfolk in 1752. In the ninth year of her age she accompanied her father to London, where, from the advantages of her position, she enjoyed excellent opportunities of observing the manners and characters of all classes of society. As soon as she could use the pen, which however was not very early, she began to write little stories for her own amusement and that of her sisters, but her stepmother (for Dr Burney's second marriage took place when Frances was in her sixteenth year) remonstrating against so dangerous a recreation, she abandoned it for a time. But the literary impulse was too strong to be permanently suppressed, and, in 1778, when Miss Burney was in her twenty-sixth year, Evelina appeared. No novel since the days of Smollett had produced so great an effect on the public mind, or gained for its author so wide and rapid a popularity. Four years after appeared Cecilia, which amply sustained Miss Burney's reputation, and instantly took rank as an English classic. In 1785 she became one of the keepers of the robes to Queen Charlotte the consort of George III., a situation which she held for five years, and which gave her ample opportunities of observing and studying the manners of the court, and witnessing many of the historical incidents of the period. These she has recorded in her "Diary." In 1793 she married M. D'Arblay, an exiled officer of a French cavalry. Three years later she published her third novel, Camilla, for which it is said that she received no less a sum than 3000 guineas. It is generally agreed that this work, though equal to its predecessors in humour and portraiture of character, is inferior to them in grace and purity of style. In 1803 she went over to Paris to join her husband, and did not again see her native country for ten years. In 1813 she returned in time to witness the demise of her father, who died in that year at the age of eighty-seven. In the following year she published her last novel, the Wanderer, a work which speedily and justly fell into oblivion. In 1832 she published her memoirs of her father, and in 1840 she died, in the eighty-eighth year of her age.