Customer Reviews

Faithful Handmaid

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

An eminently readable, thoroughly researched recounting of Fanny Burney's years as Second Keeper of the Robes to Queen Charlotte, consort of George III of England. Davenport carefully explores Burney's relationships with others at the court, most particularly her dealings with Colonel Stephen Digby. Of interest to Burney scholars for its interesting minor insights and scraps of information and to general readers for its fascinating portrayal of daily life at the royal court.

Before there was Jane Austen taking on the task of writing about English society, there was a woman a generation before who wrote about young women and their troubles in making just the right match. Author Hester Davenport takes a look at the royal households of George III and Queen Charlotte through the eyes of one of England's first popular novelists.

Fanny Burney turned to writing as a means of making a living. Her first novel, Evelina, was published anonymously to great acclaim, and Burney found herself thrust into the limelight -- a role that she didn't necessarily seek, or want. Hester Davenport's style is light enough to keep this one from completely bogging down into details. I had only heard of Fanny Burney as an English woman writer who was before Jane Austen's time, but that was all. Now after reading this, I am interested enough to track down more of her work -- she would only write a few novels, Evelina, Cecilia, Camilla, and The Wanderer , all of which took a look at young women in high society and the choices they faced, and her copious notes, journals and letters.

For anyone who is interested in the life of a woman writer, the late eighteenth century, or the nature of the writer's life, this is a very entertaining read. I found the writing not at all ponderous, with plenty of notes and details, and a sympathy for the subject that made her plight of struggling for time to write, her own duties, and the hassles of courtship to make the story very real. While this is not a complete biography of Burney's life -- nearly nothing is given of her marriage -- the details of a royal household from the inside out -- is what makes this book so interesting. Burney herself is revealed as a shy, rather quiet woman, but her journals show that she was an acerbic, knowledgeable observer of the world around her.