Early criticism

The afterlife of Frances Burney is a story as varied and exciting as the tale of one of her heroines, stepping tremblingly out on the stage of the world. The evolution of her reputation since her death in 1840 can be plotted as an upward trajectory of early vicissitudes crowned with eventual triumph. The reception history has the added twist that while she wrote in several genres, it has taken time for her whole oeuvre to emerge in reliable editions. With basic material still lacking, a full appreciation of her power as a writer has not yet been achieved.

Burney's posthumous reputation was a story which she tried to control herself, both through the voluminous material provided and the considerable amount destroyed, putting the evidence forever beyond reach. The legacy she would leave was very much on her mind during the last decades of her life when she worked on the 'myriads of hoards of MSS' (JL XII, 954) collected over seventy years - selecting, annotating and censoring her own papers in preparation for their possible future publication. In her will, she left them to her niece, Charlotte Barrett, who lost no time in contacting a publisher eager to capitalise on her aunt's reputation. Guided by the preselection of material, Mrs Barrett culled out seven volumes' worth of highlights, the first five appearing in 1842, the last two in 1846. Beginning in 1778 with the publication of Evelina, the first five volumes cover the years of literary fame, of royal service, of courtship and marriage, up until 1793. The last two volumes curtail drastically the last fifty years of Burney's life.