Sarah Burney facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Sarah Burney
|
|
|---|---|
Portrait of Sarah Burney, c. 1790
|
|
| Born | Sarah Burney 29 August 1772 King's Lynn, England |
| Died | 8 February 1844 (aged 71) Cheltenham, England |
| Occupation | Novelist |
Sarah Harriet Burney (born August 29, 1772 – died February 8, 1844) was an English writer who wrote novels. She was the daughter of Charles Burney, a famous music expert and composer. Her half-sister was Frances Burney, who was also a well-known novelist and diarist. Sarah Burney had some success with the books she wrote during her lifetime.
Contents
Sarah Burney's Early Life and Education
Sarah Burney was born in Lynn Regis, which is now called King's Lynn, England. She was baptized there on September 29, 1772. Her mother, Elizabeth Allen, was the second wife of Charles Burney. Family relationships were sometimes difficult.
Sarah lived with her mother's relatives in Norfolk until 1775. Then, she moved to London to live with the Burney family. Her half-sister Frances Burney wrote about her, saying Sarah was "one of the most innocent, artless, queer little things you ever saw." She also called her "very sweet, and a very engaging child."
In 1781, Sarah and her brother Richard went to Corsier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland, to finish their education. They likely returned in 1783. While there, Sarah learned to speak French and Italian very well. This skill helped her later when she acted as an interpreter for French nobles who had to leave their country.
Life as an Adult and Family Challenges
As an adult, Sarah Burney often took care of her elderly parents in Chelsea. She nursed her mother until 1796 and her father from 1807 to 1814. When she wasn't caring for her parents, she worked as a governess (a private teacher) or a companion. She was not wealthy, so she needed to work.
Life with her father became even harder after her mother passed away. Her half-brother, James Burney, wanted to move back in with their father and Sarah. However, their father said no. This caused a big family problem when Sarah and James left together. They lived in Bristol and London from 1798 to 1803, often struggling financially. Sarah's bank records show she spent a lot of her small savings during this time.
In 1807, Sarah moved back to care for her father, Charles Burney. But their relationship remained difficult. When he died in 1814, she inherited very little, even though she had worked hard as his housekeeper and helper.
Life in Italy and Later Years
From 1829 to 1833, Sarah Burney lived in Italy, mostly in Florence. A writer named Henry Crabb Robinson met her in Rome in 1829 and wrote kindly about her in his diary. While in Italy, she also met her niece, Charlotte Barrett, who was caring for her two daughters who had tuberculosis. One daughter died, but the other, Julia Maitland, got better. It's not clear why Sarah's relationship with her niece became distant later, but perhaps the Barretts felt she didn't help them as much as they expected in Italy.
Living in Italy was cheaper, but Sarah felt more and more lonely there. In 1833, she returned to England and lived in Bath. Even with financial help from her half-sister Frances Burney, who also left her £1,000 in her will, Sarah still struggled with money. This led her to update and publish two short novels she had started earlier. Sarah Burney moved to Cheltenham in 1841 and passed away there three years later, at the age of 71.
Sarah's Relationship with Frances Burney
Sarah Burney's relationship with her famous half-sister, Frances (often called Fanny), seemed good, though they grew more distant over time. Frances was 20 years older than Sarah, so there aren't many early mentions of Sarah in Frances's journals. However, the ones that exist are warm and loving. For example, Frances wrote in 1791, "Sarah is well, & a great comfort to me."
In 1792, Sarah went with Frances to some hearings for the Impeachment of Warren Hastings. The two half-sisters likely shared a room at their father's house. Frances wrote about Sarah picking her up, saying she was "very good humouredly, for the sake of the ride Tête à Tête" (a ride just the two of them).
Both Sarah and Frances were very sympathetic to French refugees who had to flee their country. In 1792, Sarah was staying at Bradfield Hall and was said to be "living upon French politics & with French fugitives." Frances joined her there. The sisters were happy to meet important people like the Duc de Liancourt. Frances told their father that "Sarah's French has been of great use to [Lancourt]." The next year, Sarah was "enchanted" by D'Arblay, who later married Frances. Sarah spoke positively about him to her father, who initially didn't like him.
We get a glimpse of Sarah as a young woman from a conversation Frances had with Queen Charlotte in 1798. The Queen asked Frances's two-year-old son, Alexander, who made his pretty frock. When Alexander said his Mama did, the Queen asked if "little Aunty [Sarah]" made it. Frances replied that Sarah "has not the most distant idea of such an exertion." The Queen then asked about Sarah's personality. Frances described her as "very clever," a "little excentric [sic]," but with good principles, and "lively and agreeable."
Frances tried to help when Sarah and James suddenly left their father's house. She was worried about how James's wife and their stepsister might view the situation. Later, Frances was annoyed when James seemed to reject her attempts to reconnect. However, this was not the first family problem caused by their father; both Frances and her sister Charlotte had been out of favor after their own marriages. Sarah eventually visited her father in April 1799, and she started writing to Frances again in May.
Sarah Burney's life was often marked by loneliness. Her relationships with family and friends sometimes faded or ended in disagreements. Her writing not only helped her earn a small income but also may have helped fill the gaps in her social life.
Sarah Burney's Novels
Sarah Burney wrote seven works of fiction.
- Clarentine (1796)
- 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 and The Hermitage (1839)
Early Works and Reception
It seems Sarah Burney's father was not very excited about her first novel, Clarentine. This book was published without her name on it, around the same time as Frances Burney's third novel, Camilla. In contrast, her father strongly promoted Camilla. The character of Chevalier de Valcour in Clarentine is thought to be based on D'Arblay, Frances's husband. Geraldine Fauconberg, a novel written as a series of letters, was also published anonymously, which was common for women writers back then.
Not everyone liked Clarentine. The famous writer Jane Austen read it and said, "We are reading 'Clarentine,' & are surprised to find how foolish it is." She felt it had "unnatural conduct & forced difficulties."
Popular Success and Later Novels
Sarah's third novel, Traits of Nature, was a big success. The first edition sold out in just four months. Her publisher paid her £50 for each of its five volumes. This book was published under her own name. Traits of Nature was reprinted at least once in the same year and was still available years later. It tells a large story about family relationships in the city and countryside, focusing on right and wrong behavior.
The novel also gives us a peek into life in the 1810s. For example, it shows how upper-class education was changing. Children's stories were moving from fantasy to more educational tales. A character named Christina Cleveland says that "fairy-tales are forbidden pleasures in all modern school-rooms." She mentions writers like Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Sarah Trimmer, and Maria Edgeworth who wrote "good books for children."
The Shipwreck (1816) earned her £100. For Country Neighbours (1820), she even received a poem from her friend Charles Lamb. Some of Sarah Burney's books were published in America and translated into French. However, they don't seem to have been reprinted in English after she died. The two novels in The Romance of Private Life didn't get many reviews, though there was an American edition in 1840.
Interest in Sarah Burney's work has grown again recently. This is part of a wider interest in women writers from her time. New editions of her books have been published, and her letters have been collected.
Both Renunciation and The Hermitage are mystery stories with beautiful and good heroines. However, their plots are not connected. The Renunciation is still a good read today. The places in the story (like Cheltenham, London, Paris, and Italy) are described very well. The ending is wonderfully complex. The Hermitage is similar, but some readers feel the story loses its energy after a murder happens.
Sarah Burney had a positive, though modest, reputation as a novelist in her time. A memoir about her father summed it up: "A still younger sister followed the track of Madame D['Arblay]., with considerable, though not equal success."
