Woman's Work in English Fiction, from the Restoration to the Mid-Victorian Period

by Clara Helen Whitmore

  CHAPTER III

  Fanny Burney

  A noteworthy transformation took place in the English novel during thelate years of the eighteenth century and the early part of thenineteenth. This change cannot be explained by the great difference inmanners only. The mode of life described by the early novelists was inexistence sixty years after they wrote scenes typical of the customs andmanners of their day, just as the quiet home life described by MissAusten was to be found in England a hundred years before it graced thepages of a book. This new era in the English novel was due not to achange of environment, but to the new ideals of those who wrote.

  In 1778, English fiction was represented by the work of Miss Burney, andfor thirty-six years, until 1814, when _Waverley_ appeared, this rareplant was preserved and kept alive by a group of women, who trimmed andpruned off many of its rough branches and gave to the wild native fruita delicacy and fragrance unknown to it before. English women writersdid at that time for the English novel what French women had done inthe preceding century for the French novel; they made it so pure inthought and expression that Bishop Huet was able to say of the Frenchromances of the seventeenth century, "You'll scarce find an expressionor word which may shock chaste ears, or one single action which may giveoffence to modesty."

  This great change in the English novel was inaugurated by a young womanignorant of the world, whose power lay in her innocent and livelyimagination. At his home in Queen Square and later in St. Martin'sStreet, Charles Burney, the father of Frances, entertained the mostillustrious men of his day. Johnson, Reynolds, Garrick, Burke, andColman were frequent guests, while members of the nobility thronged hisparlours to listen to the famous Italian singers who gladly sang for theauthor of the _History of Music_. Here Fanny, a bashful but observantchild, saw life in the drawing-room. But as Dr. Burney gave little heedto the comings and goings of his daughters, they played with thechildren of a wigmaker next door, where, perhaps, Fanny becameacquainted with the vulgar side of London life, which is so humorouslydepicted in _Evelina_. She received but little education, nor was shemore than a casual reader, but she was familiar with _Pamela_, _BetseyThoughtless_, _Rasselas_, and the _Vicar of Wakefield_. Such was herpreparation for becoming a writer of novels.

  From her earliest years, she had delighted in writing stories anddramas, although she received little encouragement in this occupation.In her fifteenth year her stepmother proved to her so conclusively thefolly of girls' scribbling that Fanny burned all her manuscripts,including _The History of Caroline Evelyn_. She could not, however,banish from her mind the fate of Caroline's infant daughter, born ofhigh rank, but related through her grandmother to the vulgar people ofthe East End of London. The many embarrassing situations in which shemight be placed haunted the imagination of the youthful writer, but itwas not until her twenty-sixth year that these situations weredescribed, when _Evelina or a Young Lady's Entrance into the World_ waspublished.

  The success of the book was instantaneous. The name of the author, whichhad been withheld even from the publishers, was eagerly demanded. Allagreed that only a man conversant with the world could have written suchaccurate descriptions of life both high and low. The wonder wasincreased when it was learned that the author was a young woman who haddrawn her scenes, not from a knowledge of the world, but from her ownintuition and imagination. Miss Burney became at once an honouredmember of the literary circle which Mrs. Thrale had gathered atStreatham, and a favourite of Dr. Johnson, who declared that _Evelina_was superior to anything that Fielding had written, and that somepassages were worthy of the pen of Richardson. The book was accorded aplace among English classics, which it has retained for over a century."It was not hard fagging that produced such a work as _Evelina_," wroteMr. Crisp to the youthful author. "It was the ebullition of truesterling genius--you wrote it because you could not help it--itcame--and so you put it down on paper."

  The novel, following the form so common in the eighteenth century, iswritten in the form of letters. The plot is somewhat time-honoured;there is the nurse's daughter substituted for the real heiress, and amystery surrounding some of the characters; it is unfolded slowly with aslight strain upon the readers' credulity at the last, but it ends tothe satisfaction of all concerned. In many incidents and in some of thecharacters the story suggests _Betsey Thoughtless_, but Miss Burney hadgreater powers of description than Mrs. Haywood.

  The plot of the novel is forgotten, however, in the lively, witty mannerin which the characters are drawn and the ludicrous situations in whichthey are placed. So long had these men and women held the mind of theauthor that they are intensely real as they are presented to us atassemblies, balls, theatres, and operas, where we watch their odditieswith amusement.

  Indeed no woman has given so many graphic, droll, and minutedescriptions of life as Miss Burney. Her genius in this respect isdifferent from that of other women novelists. She has made a series ofsnap-shots of people in the most absurd situations and ridicules themwhile she is taking the picture. Few women writers can resist thetemptation of peeping into the hearts of their men and women, and theknowledge thus gained gives them sympathy, while it often detracts fromthe strong lines of the external picture; a writer will not paint avillain quite so black if he believes he still preserves some remnantsof a noble nature. But Miss Burney has no interest in the inner life ofher men and women. She saw their peculiarities and was amused by them,and has presented them to the reader with minute descriptions and livelywit.

  She also makes fine distinctions between people. Sir Clement Willoughby,the West End snob, and Mr. Smith, the East End beau, are drawn withdiscrimination. With what wit Miss Burney describes the scene at the_ridotto_ between Evelina and Sir Clement. He had asked her to dancewith him. Unwilling to do so, because she wished to dance with anothergentleman, if he should ask her, she told Sir Clement she was engagedfor that dance. He did not leave her, however, but remained by her sideand speculated as to who the beast was so hostile to his own interestsas to forget to come to her; pitied the humiliation a lady must feel inhaving to wait for a gentleman, and pointed to each old and lame man inthe room asking if he were the miscreant; he offered to find him for herand asked what kind of a coat he had on. When Evelina did not know, hebecame angry with the wretch who dared to address a lady in soinsignificant a coat that it was unworthy of her notice. To save herselffrom further annoyance she danced with him, for she now knew that SirClement had seen through her artifice from the beginning.

  But the portrait of Mr. Smith, the East End snob, is even better thanthat of Sir Clement Willoughby. Evelina is visiting her relatives atSnow Hill, when Mr. Smith enters, self-confident and vulgar. His aim inlife, as he tells us, is to please the ladies. When Tom Branghton isdisputing with his sister about the place where they shall go foramusement, he reprimands Tom for his lack of good breeding.

  "O fie, Tom,--dispute with a lady!" cried Mr. Smith. "Now, as for me,I'm for where you will, providing this young lady [meaning Evelina] isof the party; one place is the same as another to me, so that it be butagreeable to the ladies. I would go anywhere with you, Ma'm, unless,indeed, it were to church;--ha, ha, ha, you'll excuse me, Ma'm, but,really, I never could conquer my fear of a parson;--ha, ha, ha,--really,ladies, I beg your pardon, for being so rude, but I can't help laughingfor my life."

  Mr. Smith endeavoured to make himself particularly pleasing to Evelina,and for that purpose bought tickets for her and her relatives to attendthe Hampstead Assembly. When he observed that Evelina was a little outof sorts, he attributed her low spirits to doubts of his intentionstowards her. "To be sure," he told her, "marriage is all in all with theladies; but with us gentlemen it's quite another thing." He advised hernot to be discouraged, saying with a patronising air, "You may very wellbe proud, for I assure you there is nobody so likely to catch me at lastas yourself."

  Both Sir Clement Willoughby and Mr. Smith are selfish and conceited; butthe former had lived among the gentlemen of Mayfair, the latter amongthe tradespeople of Snow
Hill, and this difference of environment isshown in every speech they utter.

  It is the contrast between these two distinct classes of society thatsaves the book from becoming monotonous. Evelina visits the Pantheonwith her West End friends. When Captain Mirvan wonders what people findin such a place, Mr. Lovel, a fashionable fop, quickly rejoins: "Whatthe ladies may come hither for, Sir, it would ill become _us_ todetermine; but as to we men, doubtless we can have no other view, thanto admire them." At another time Evelina visits the opera with thevulgar Branghtons, who all rejoiced when the curtain dropped, and Mr.Branghton vowed he would never be caught again. The Branghtons at theopera is hardly inferior to Partridge at the play. Tom Branghton is agood representative of his class. He describes with glee the last nightat Vauxhall: "There's such squealing and squalling!--and then all thelamps are broke,--and the women skimper scamper;--I declare I would nottake five guineas to miss the last night!"

  All the characters, even the heroine, take delight, in boisterous mirth.Much of the humour of the book consists rather in ludicrous situationsthan in any real delicacy of wit. Too often the laugh is at another'sdiscomfiture, and so fails to please the present age with its kindlierfeeling towards others. Such are the practical jokes which CaptainMirvan plays upon Madame Duval. In one instance, disguised as a robber,he waylays the lady's coach, and leaves her in a ditch with her feettied to a tree. The many tricks which the doughty Salt plays upon thislady so much resemble some of the humorous scenes in _Joseph Andrews_,and _Tom Jones_ that we may infer the readers of that century foundthem laughable. The Captain and the French woman are two puppets whichserve to introduce much of this horse-play. They are not evencaricatures; they are entirely unlike anything in human life. With theexception of these two characters, all the men and women who provokedthe mirth of the heroine are well portrayed.

  Miss Burney is less felicitous in her descriptions of seriouscharacters. Lord Orville, the same type of man as Sir Charles Grandison,is true only in the sense that Miss Burney announces the truth of theentire book. "I have not pretended to show the world what it actually_is_, but what it _appears_ to a girl of seventeen," she wrote in thepreface to _Evelina_. Lord Orville, all dignity, nobility, charm, andperfection, is but the ideal of a young girl.

  Evelina was a new woman in literature, a revelation to the men of thetime of George the Third. The sincerity of the book could not bedoubted. "But," they asked, "did Evelina represent the woman's point ofview of life? Surely no man ever held like views." The Lovelaces and TomJoneses are not so attractive as when seen through the eyes of their ownsex, and the heroines are not so soft and yielding as a man would createthem. Evelina, like all Miss Burney's heroines, is independent,fearless, and witty, with scarcely a trace of the traditional heroineof fiction. Saints and Magdalenes have always appealed to the masculineimagination. _La donna dolorosa_ has occupied a prominent place in theart and literature of man's creation. Here he has revealed his sexegoism in all its nudity: the woman weeping for man, either lover,husband, or son; man the centre of her thoughts, her hopes and fears.This new heroine with a new regard towards man was a revelation to them.Evelina was the first woman to break the spell, to show them woman aswoman, in lieu of woman as parasite and adjunct to man. Evelina is notalways pleasing; she hasn't always good manners; she sometimes laughs inthe faces of the dashing beaux who are addressing her. But she is awoman of real flesh and blood; such women have existed in all time, and,liked many women we meet every day and whom men in all ages have known,Evelina insists on being the centre of every scene.

  In July, 1782, Miss Burney's second book, _Cecilia, or Memoirs of anHeiress_, was published. This novel met with as enthusiastic a receptionas _Evelina_. Gibbon read the whole five volumes in a day; Burkedeclared they had cost him three days, though he did not part with thestory from the time he first opened it, and had sat up a whole night tofinish it; and Sir Joshua Reynolds had been fed while reading it,because he refused to quit it at the table.

  The book shows more care and effort than _Evelina_. That was an outburstof youthful vivacity and spirits, but in _Cecilia_ the author isstriving to do her best. This is particularly revealed in the style,which shows the influence of Doctor Johnson, for it has lost thesimplicity of _Evelina_. The diction is more ambitious, and thesentences are longer, many of them balanced. Even some of the inferiorcharacters from their speech, appear to have received a lesson inEnglish composition from Dr. Johnson.

  But the novel owes its place among English classics to the varieties ofcharacters portrayed and the vivid pictures of English life. Here againthe gaieties of Vauxhall, Ranelagh, Marylebone and the Pantheon havebecome immortal, drawn with colours as vivid and enduring as Hogarthused in painting the sadder sides of London life. No other writer hasbrought these places before our eyes as clearly and as fully as FannyBurney.

  The plot of _Cecilia_, like that of _Evelina_, is so arranged as topresent different classes of society. _Cecilia_ has three guardians,with one of whom she must live during her minority. First she visits Mr.Harrel, a gay, fashionable man, a spendthrift and a gambler, who livesin a fashionable house in Portman Square, where Cecilia, during aconstant round of festivities, meets the fashionable people of London.Next she visits Mr. Briggs in the City, "a short thick, sturdy man, withvery small keen black eyes, a square face, a dark complexion, and a snubnose." He was so miserly that when Cecilia asked for pen, ink, and asheet of paper, he gave her a slate and pencil, as he supposed she hadnothing of consequence to say. He was as sparing of his words as of hismoney, and used the same elliptical sentences in his speech as Dickensafterwards put into the mouth of Alfred Jingle, the famous character in_Pickwick Papers_. He thus advises Cecilia in regard to her lovers:"Take care of sharpers; don't trust shoe-buckles, nothing but Bristolstones! tricks in all things. A fine gentleman sharp as another man.Never give your heart to a gold-topped cane, nothing but brass giltover. Cheats everywhere: fleece you in a year; won't leave you a groat.But one way to be safe,--bring 'em all to me." Lastly she visits Mr.Delvile, her third guardian, a man of family, who despised both the menassociated with him as trustees of Cecilia; he lived in such gloomystate in his magnificent old house in St. James's Square that itinspired awe, and repressed all pleasure. Pride in their birth andprejudice against all parvenus were the faults of Mr. and Mrs. Delvile.

  Besides these characters, there were many others whose names were for along time familiar in every household. Sir Robert Floyer was as vain asMr. Smith. Mr. Meadows was constantly bored to death; it wasinsufferable exertion to talk to a quiet woman, and a talkative one puthim into a fever. At the opera the solos depressed him and the fullorchestra fatigued him. He yawned while ladies were talking to him, andafter he had begged them to repeat what they had said, forgot to listen."I am tired to death! tired of everything," was his constant expression.

  In his critical essay on Madame D'Arblay, Fanny Burney's married name,under which her later works were published, Macaulay has thus dealt withher treatment of character:

  "Madame D'Arblay has left us scarcely anything but humours. Almost everyone of her men and women has some one propensity developed to a morbiddegree. In _Cecilia_, for example, Mr. Delvile never opens his lipswithout some allusion to his own birth and station; or Mr. Briggswithout some allusion to the hoarding of money; or Mr. Hobson, withoutbetraying the self-indulgence and self-importance of a purse-proudupstart; or Mr. Simkins, without uttering some sneaking remark for thepurpose of currying favour with his customers; or Mr. Meadows, withoutexpressing apathy and weariness of life; or Mr. Albany, withoutdeclaiming about the vices of the rich and the misery of the poor; orMrs. Belfield, without some indelicate eulogy on her son; or LadyMargaret, without indicating jealousy of her husband. Morrice is allskipping, officious impertinence, Mr. Gosport all sarcasm, Lady Honoriaall lively prattle, Miss Larolles all silly prattle; if ever MadameD'Arblay aimed at more, as in the character of Monckton, we do not thinkthat she succeeded well.... The variety of humours which is to be foundin her novels
is immense; and though the talk of each person separatelyis monotonous, the general effect is not monotony, but a most lively andagreeable diversity."

  While the character of Monckton is not strongly drawn, one or two scenesin which he figures have great power. Mr. Monckton, who had married anaged woman for her money, lived in constant hope of her dissolution. Heplanned to keep Cecilia from marrying until that happy event, when heschemed to make her his bride, and thus acquire a second fortune. He hadused his influence as a family friend to prejudice her lovers in hereyes, and had just succeeded in breaking up an intimacy which he feared:"A weight was removed from his mind which had nearly borne down even hisremotest hopes; the object of his eager pursuit seemed still within hisreach, and the rival into whose power he had so lately almost beheld herdelivered, was totally renounced, and no longer to be dreaded. Arevolution such as this, raised expectations more sanguine than ever;and in quitting the house, he exultingly considered himself releasedfrom every obstacle to his view,--till, just as he arrived home, herecollected his wife!"

  Cecilia, the heroine of the novel, is only Evelina grown a little older,a little sadder, a little more worldly wise. The humour is, too, alittle kindlier. The practical jokes so common in _Evelina_ do not marthe pages of _Cecilia_. At times the latter novel becomes almost tragic.The scene at Vauxhall where Mr. Harrel puts an end to his life ofdissipation is dramatic and thrilling. But Miss Burney had lost thebuoyancy and lively fancy which made the charm of _Evelina_.

  Miss Burney's last two novels, _Camilla, or a Picture of Youth_ and _TheWanderer, or Female Difficulties_, have no claim to a place amongEnglish classics. It is strange that, as she saw more of life, shedepicted it with less accuracy. This might seem to show that her firstnovels owe their excellence to her vivid imagination rather than to herpowers of observation. Her weary life at court as second keeper of therobes to Queen Charlotte; her marriage to Monsieur D'Arblay, and thesorrows that came to her as the wife of a French refugee; all herdeeper experiences of life during the fourteen years between thepublication of _Cecilia_ and _Camilla_--these had completely changed herlight, humorous view of externals, and with that loss her power as anartist disappeared.

  _Camilla_ has several heroines whose love affairs interest the reader.It thus bears a resemblance to Miss Austen's novels, who speaks of itwith admiration and was, perhaps, influenced by it. Eugenia, who hasreceived the education of a man, is pleasing. Clermont Lynmere, like Mr.Smith and Sir Robert Floyer, imagines that all the ladies are in lovewith him. Sir Hugh Tyrold, with his love for the classics and his regretthat he had not been beaten into learning them when he was a boy, hisstrict ideas of virtue and his desire to make everybody happy, is wellconceived, but the outlines are not strong enough to make him a livingcharacter. _Camilla_ shows more than _Cecilia_ the style of Dr. Johnson.It is heavy and slow, the words are long, and many of them of Latinderivation.

  It was not until the year 1814, the year of _Waverley_, that her lastnovel, _The Wanderer, or Female Difficulties_, was published, which,following the style of _Camilla_, was in five volumes. It was partlyfounded on incidents arising out of the French Revolution. The book waseagerly awaited; the publishers paid fifteen hundred guineas for it;but even the friendliest critic pronounced it a literary failure.

  To sum up, Macaulay in the essay before quoted makes clear Miss Burney'splace in fiction:

  "Miss Burney did for the English novel what Jeremy Collier did for theEnglish drama; and she did it in a better way. She first showed that atale might be written in which both the fashionable and the vulgar lifeof London might be exhibited with great force and with broad comichumour, and which yet should not contain a single line inconsistent withrigid morality, or even with virgin delicacy. She took away the reproachwhich lay on a most useful and delightful species of composition. Shevindicated the right of her sex to an equal share in a fair and nobleprovince of letters ... we owe to her not only _Evelina_, _Cecilia_, and_Camilla_, but also _Mansfield Park_ and _The Absentee_."