Book contents
- Frances Burney and the Doctors
- Frances Burney and the Doctors
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Short Titles
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Frances Burney’s Long and Extraordinary Life: 1752–1840
- Chapter 2 The King, the Court, and ‘Madness’: 1788–1789
- Chapter 3 Aftermath: 1789–1791
- Chapter 4 An Inoculation for Smallpox: 1797
- Chapter 5 A Mastectomy: 1811
- Chapter 6 Fighting for Life
- Chapter 7 Between Hope, Trust, and Truth: 1965–2015
- Chapter 8 Patienthood across Two Centuries
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 1 - Frances Burney’s Long and Extraordinary Life: 1752–1840
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 October 2019
- Frances Burney and the Doctors
- Frances Burney and the Doctors
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Short Titles
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Frances Burney’s Long and Extraordinary Life: 1752–1840
- Chapter 2 The King, the Court, and ‘Madness’: 1788–1789
- Chapter 3 Aftermath: 1789–1791
- Chapter 4 An Inoculation for Smallpox: 1797
- Chapter 5 A Mastectomy: 1811
- Chapter 6 Fighting for Life
- Chapter 7 Between Hope, Trust, and Truth: 1965–2015
- Chapter 8 Patienthood across Two Centuries
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Frances Burney was born in June 1752 into a family of precarious gentility. The Burneys had just moved to King’s Lynn in Norfolk, where Frances’s father, who was to become a signally important figure in her life, had secured a post as organist at St Margaret’s Church. Charles Burney, a musician and composer and a man of ambition, later became the author of the pioneering A General History of Music, published in four volumes from 1776 to 1789. While still a girl Frances acted as his amanuensis, and at ten, in her own words, ‘began scribbling … little works of invention’. There were five children in the family, who all remained close: Susanna, Frances’s younger sister, was especially dear to her, and it was to Susanna that many of the enormous number of letters that Frances was eventually to write were addressed. In 1759 the family moved to London, where three years later their mother died.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Frances Burney and the DoctorsPatient Narratives Then and Now, pp. 20 - 40Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019