Sarah Harriet Burney (1772–1844)
Autore di Traits of nature
Opere di Sarah Harriet Burney
Etichette
Informazioni generali
- Data di nascita
- 1772-08-29
- Data di morte
- 1844-02-08
- Sesso
- female
- Nazionalità
- England
UK - Luogo di nascita
- Lynn Regis, England, UK
- Luogo di morte
- Cheltenham, England, UK
- Luogo di residenza
- Bath, England, UK
London, England, UK
Rome, Italy
Florence, Italy
Bristol, Gloucestershire, England, UK - Attività lavorative
- novelist
letter writer - Relazioni
- Burney, Charles (father)
Burney, Fanny (half-sister)
Burney, James (half-brother)
Maitland, Julia Charlotte (great-niece) - Breve biografia
- Sarah Burney was born at Lynn Regis (now King's Lynn), England, the youngest child of Charles Burney, a composer and musicologist, and his second wife Elizabeth Allen. She spent her early childhood with relatives of her mother in Norfolk, and was brought into the Burney household in Chelsea, London in 1775. Her much older half-siblings included Frances "Fanny" Burney and Admiral James Burney. In 1781, Sarah was sent with her brother Richard to Corsier-sur-Vevey in Switzerland, to complete her education. She studied music and drawing, and became fluent in French and Italian, enough to act as an interpreter for aristocratic French émigrés on several occasions. She worked as a governess and companion and also spent periods nursing her elderly parents. She and James took up housekeeping together in Bristol and then in London from 1798 to 1803, after which she moved back in with her father again to nurse him and serve as his amanuensis. After his death in 1814, she traveled to Italy and lived in Rome and Florence for several years. She became increasingly lonely there and returned to Britain in 1833, settling in boarding houses in Bath and Cheltenham. Sarah Burney published seven works of fiction, beginning with Clarentine (1796), a novel of manners;
Geraldine Fauconberg (1808);
Traits of Nature (1812);
Tales of Fancy: The Shipwreck (1816);
Tales of Fancy: Country Neighbours (1820);
The Romance of Private Life: The Renunciation (1839) and The Hermitage (1839). Several of them were popular enough to be translated into other languages, but did not earn her much money. Her reputation was overshadowed by that of her more-famous half-sister Fanny Burney.
Utenti
Recensioni
This book was originally published as Volume 1 of a 3-volume work, which I reviewed here, but since it can currently be purchased by itself in Kindle format, I'm placing this review here as well:
This book blew my mind. I couldn't help but sort of eat my words from a review I wrote about Saving Miss Everly, a newer Regency romance published a couple of years ago. I thought it was just wildly funny that someone could brainstorm a novel and think, "Yeah, Regency romance is ok, but you know what would make it even better? A DESERTED ISLAND.”
Welp. Guess what? Not just a plot stretch trying to make it in a saturated modern market.
Turns out Sarah Burney was spinning that tale 205 years ago.
Sorry if any of the following spoils the plot for you. I have to say, part of the fun was not knowing ANY of this:
In this story a mother and daughter get marooned on a deserted island somewhere between Africa and Australia. (Yeah, that's... vague, but ok.) The daughter, Viola, spends many pages weeping in her mother's arms about how awful this situation is, and her mom is like, "Well, at least there aren't any men here, men are really bad at dealing with stuff like this." Which is... hilarious and also kind of an odd thing to say. Anyway, they find a cave to live in, and there's a lot of delicious fruit, and the birds come and sing to Viola and follow her around and it's all very Disney-like.
But THEN they discover that they're not alone! There's a man! A fellow castaway named Fitz Aymer! But he has a Checkered Past and Viola's mother doesn't trust him, so she dresses Viola in boy's clothes (did I mention they found a trunk on the beach with all the things they conveniently might need for the rest of the story?). Enter the Swiss Family Robinson part of the plot. I don't buy that anyone would believe Viola as a boy for a minute, but whatever.
Anyway, suffice it to say that for the rest of the story the deserted island becomes really not so deserted. A surprising number of people just... show up. And then there's the Problem of the Putrefaction. (shudder) It's... not Jane Austen.
But I enjoyed it! I mean, except for the putrefaction. The plot was just so unexpected and I couldn't tell where it was going to take me next. I have to say, the ending was a bit ho-hum, though. Things kind of took the path of least resistance towards the end, and it became less interesting. But wow, what a ride.… (altro)
This book blew my mind. I couldn't help but sort of eat my words from a review I wrote about Saving Miss Everly, a newer Regency romance published a couple of years ago. I thought it was just wildly funny that someone could brainstorm a novel and think, "Yeah, Regency romance is ok, but you know what would make it even better? A DESERTED ISLAND.”
Welp. Guess what? Not just a plot stretch trying to make it in a saturated modern market.
Turns out Sarah Burney was spinning that tale 205 years ago.
Sorry if any of the following spoils the plot for you. I have to say, part of the fun was not knowing ANY of this:
In this story a mother and daughter get marooned on a deserted island somewhere between Africa and Australia. (Yeah, that's... vague, but ok.) The daughter, Viola, spends many pages weeping in her mother's arms about how awful this situation is, and her mom is like, "Well, at least there aren't any men here, men are really bad at dealing with stuff like this." Which is... hilarious and also kind of an odd thing to say. Anyway, they find a cave to live in, and there's a lot of delicious fruit, and the birds come and sing to Viola and follow her around and it's all very Disney-like.
But THEN they discover that they're not alone! There's a man! A fellow castaway named Fitz Aymer! But he has a Checkered Past and Viola's mother doesn't trust him, so she dresses Viola in boy's clothes (did I mention they found a trunk on the beach with all the things they conveniently might need for the rest of the story?). Enter the Swiss Family Robinson part of the plot. I don't buy that anyone would believe Viola as a boy for a minute, but whatever.
Anyway, suffice it to say that for the rest of the story the deserted island becomes really not so deserted. A surprising number of people just... show up. And then there's the Problem of the Putrefaction. (shudder) It's... not Jane Austen.
But I enjoyed it! I mean, except for the putrefaction. The plot was just so unexpected and I couldn't tell where it was going to take me next. I have to say, the ending was a bit ho-hum, though. Things kind of took the path of least resistance towards the end, and it became less interesting. But wow, what a ride.… (altro)
Geraldine Fauconberg is a good story but is hampered by its length and by plot devices that unnecessarily string out the tension. It is an epistolary novel published in 1808 in three volumes.
Julia Lesmore, best friend of Geraldine, is visiting her and her uncle for most of this novel and is the primary set of eyes through which we see the plot unfold. Geraldine doesn't know it, but her uncle has long hoped that she will make a match with Ferdinand Lesmore, brother of Julia. The whole Lesmore family approves of this match, but the problem is they talk to Ferdinand about it... All. The. Time. Ferdinand finally comes to meet Geraldine, but he is so tired of being lectured about the match that he's predetermined not to like Geraldine, and so he comes off as a bit cold. A bit Darcy-like.
Geraldine has never been disliked by anyone, so she's thrown off balance by his attitude, especially since she has no idea where it comes from. So at first she's shy and self-effacing, which tends to confirm Ferdinand's opinion that she's not worth his time. But eventually she comes back out of her shell and decides it doesn't really matter what he thinks of her. Once she resumes her normal personality, her kindness, good humor, reasonableness, and intelligence really shine through, and Ferdinand falls hard. And then kicks himself for being such an idiot and making a bad first impression.
Will these two ever get on the same page? Well, before they can, there's an awful lot of jealousy, insecurity, and misunderstanding to get through. An awful lot. I would have allowed it, if it could have been condensed into one volume, but my patience was wearing thin by the end of the third. I still liked it to some degree because, as usual, Sarah Burney is great at scene building, and there were a few scenes that really had me involved. Unfortunately, though, this isn't a book that's going to experience renewed popularity any time soon.
This concludes my reading of the mostly obscure works of novelist Sarah Harriet Burney, contemporary of Jane Austen and half-sister of Fanny Burney. Highlights for me were her works Traits of Nature and Clarentine, which I do recommend if you don't mind reading page scans or text that's been imperfectly extracted by OCR. It's definitely fun to read actual Regency women novelists writing about their contemporary society, as opposed to rom-coms written 200 years later (not that I'm against those, either!).… (altro)
Julia Lesmore, best friend of Geraldine, is visiting her and her uncle for most of this novel and is the primary set of eyes through which we see the plot unfold. Geraldine doesn't know it, but her uncle has long hoped that she will make a match with Ferdinand Lesmore, brother of Julia. The whole Lesmore family approves of this match, but the problem is they talk to Ferdinand about it... All. The. Time. Ferdinand finally comes to meet Geraldine, but he is so tired of being lectured about the match that he's predetermined not to like Geraldine, and so he comes off as a bit cold. A bit Darcy-like.
Geraldine has never been disliked by anyone, so she's thrown off balance by his attitude, especially since she has no idea where it comes from. So at first she's shy and self-effacing, which tends to confirm Ferdinand's opinion that she's not worth his time. But eventually she comes back out of her shell and decides it doesn't really matter what he thinks of her. Once she resumes her normal personality, her kindness, good humor, reasonableness, and intelligence really shine through, and Ferdinand falls hard. And then kicks himself for being such an idiot and making a bad first impression.
Will these two ever get on the same page? Well, before they can, there's an awful lot of jealousy, insecurity, and misunderstanding to get through. An awful lot. I would have allowed it, if it could have been condensed into one volume, but my patience was wearing thin by the end of the third. I still liked it to some degree because, as usual, Sarah Burney is great at scene building, and there were a few scenes that really had me involved. Unfortunately, though, this isn't a book that's going to experience renewed popularity any time soon.
This concludes my reading of the mostly obscure works of novelist Sarah Harriet Burney, contemporary of Jane Austen and half-sister of Fanny Burney. Highlights for me were her works Traits of Nature and Clarentine, which I do recommend if you don't mind reading page scans or text that's been imperfectly extracted by OCR. It's definitely fun to read actual Regency women novelists writing about their contemporary society, as opposed to rom-coms written 200 years later (not that I'm against those, either!).… (altro)
This is a 3-volume work that contains two stories. The first is the relatively short The Shipwreck, a 3-star read that astonished me by its inventiveness!
The second, Country Neighbors, comprises two whole volumes and is nootttt good. :(
First, Volume 1, The Shipwreck. This book blew my mind. I couldn't help but sort of eat my words from a review I wrote about Saving Miss Everly, a newer Regency romance published a couple of years ago. I thought it was just wildly funny that someone could brainstorm a novel and think, "Yeah, Regency romance is ok, but you know what would make it even better? A DESERTED ISLAND.”
Welp. Guess what? Not just a plot stretch trying to make it in a saturated modern market.
Turns out Sarah Burney was spinning that tale 205 years ago.
Sorry if any of the following spoils the plot for you. I have to say, part of the fun was not knowing ANY of this:
In this story a mother and daughter get marooned on a deserted island somewhere between Africa and Australia. (Yeah, that's... vague, but ok.) The daughter, Viola, spends many pages weeping in her mother's arms about how awful this situation is, and her mom is like, "Well, at least there aren't any men here, men are really bad at dealing with stuff like this." Which is... hilarious and also kind of an odd thing to say. Anyway, they find a cave to live in, and there's a lot of delicious fruit, and the birds come and sing to Viola and follow her around and it's all very Disney-like.
But THEN they discover that they're not alone! There's a man! A fellow castaway named Fitz Aymer! But he has a Checkered Past and Viola's mother doesn't trust him, so she dresses Viola in boy's clothes (did I mention they found a trunk on the beach with all the things they conveniently might need for the rest of the story?). Enter the Swiss Family Robinson part of the plot. I don't buy that anyone would believe Viola as a boy for a minute, but whatever.
Anyway, suffice it to say that for the rest of the story the deserted island becomes really not so deserted. A surprising number of people just... show up. And then there's the Problem of the Putrefaction. (shudder) It's... not Jane Austen.
But I enjoyed it! I mean, except for the putrefaction. The plot was just so unexpected and I couldn't tell where it was going to take me next. I have to say, the ending was a bit ho-hum, though. Things kind of took the path of least resistance towards the end, and it became less interesting. But wow, what a ride.
-------------------------------------------
Volumes 2 and 3 tell the story of Country Neighbors, which is written from the perspective of a 40-year-old spinster observing the romance of her 16-year-old niece with their neighbor. It's a bit dull, except for where it's ridiculous. Total change of pace from The Shipwreck. I got so tired of it that I was really skimming towards the end.Turns out, it doesn't work so well for a modern reader when your main dilemma is, "This girl might be the daughter of my cousin's mistress's second husband," and it's resolved as, "Nope, we're actually cousins, let the wedding bells ring!" The "villain" is just so pointless and it just gets old tracing down the machinations.
But even so, Sarah Burney can sure make you see her scenes in your head. I'm still looking forward to trying her other books. It's just a pity that this one was so uneven. I loved Traits of Nature, so if you're looking for something obscure but worth your time, go check that one out!… (altro)
The second, Country Neighbors, comprises two whole volumes and is nootttt good. :(
First, Volume 1, The Shipwreck. This book blew my mind. I couldn't help but sort of eat my words from a review I wrote about Saving Miss Everly, a newer Regency romance published a couple of years ago. I thought it was just wildly funny that someone could brainstorm a novel and think, "Yeah, Regency romance is ok, but you know what would make it even better? A DESERTED ISLAND.”
Welp. Guess what? Not just a plot stretch trying to make it in a saturated modern market.
Turns out Sarah Burney was spinning that tale 205 years ago.
Sorry if any of the following spoils the plot for you. I have to say, part of the fun was not knowing ANY of this:
In this story a mother and daughter get marooned on a deserted island somewhere between Africa and Australia. (Yeah, that's... vague, but ok.) The daughter, Viola, spends many pages weeping in her mother's arms about how awful this situation is, and her mom is like, "Well, at least there aren't any men here, men are really bad at dealing with stuff like this." Which is... hilarious and also kind of an odd thing to say. Anyway, they find a cave to live in, and there's a lot of delicious fruit, and the birds come and sing to Viola and follow her around and it's all very Disney-like.
But THEN they discover that they're not alone! There's a man! A fellow castaway named Fitz Aymer! But he has a Checkered Past and Viola's mother doesn't trust him, so she dresses Viola in boy's clothes (did I mention they found a trunk on the beach with all the things they conveniently might need for the rest of the story?). Enter the Swiss Family Robinson part of the plot. I don't buy that anyone would believe Viola as a boy for a minute, but whatever.
Anyway, suffice it to say that for the rest of the story the deserted island becomes really not so deserted. A surprising number of people just... show up. And then there's the Problem of the Putrefaction. (shudder) It's... not Jane Austen.
But I enjoyed it! I mean, except for the putrefaction. The plot was just so unexpected and I couldn't tell where it was going to take me next. I have to say, the ending was a bit ho-hum, though. Things kind of took the path of least resistance towards the end, and it became less interesting. But wow, what a ride.
-------------------------------------------
Volumes 2 and 3 tell the story of Country Neighbors, which is written from the perspective of a 40-year-old spinster observing the romance of her 16-year-old niece with their neighbor. It's a bit dull, except for where it's ridiculous. Total change of pace from The Shipwreck. I got so tired of it that I was really skimming towards the end.
But even so, Sarah Burney can sure make you see her scenes in your head. I'm still looking forward to trying her other books. It's just a pity that this one was so uneven. I loved Traits of Nature, so if you're looking for something obscure but worth your time, go check that one out!… (altro)
Statistiche
- Opere
- 16
- Utenti
- 29
- Popolarità
- #460,290
- Voto
- 3.5
- Recensioni
- 7
- ISBN
- 12
Some tables are about to be turned.