Reading With the Burneys - Patronage, Paratext, and Performance

This Element offers a multidimensional study of reading practice and sibling rivalry in late eighteenth-century Britain. The case study is the Aberdeen student and disgraced thief Charles Burney's treatment of Evelina (1778), the debut novel of his sister Frances Burney. Coulombeau uses Charles's manuscript poetry, letters, and marginalia, alongside illustrative prints and circulating library archives, to tell the story of how he attempted to control Evelina's reception in an effort to bolster his own socio-literary status. Uniting approaches drawn from literary studies, biography, bibliography, and the history of the book, the Element enriches scholarly understanding of the reception of Frances Burney's fiction, with broader implications for studies of gender, class, kinship and reading in this period. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

List of contents

Introduction; 1. Introducing Charles Burney; 2. Charles and Evelina; 3. Prefixing Evelina; 4. Reading Evelina; 5. Loaning Evelina; List of Abbreviations; References.

Summary

This Element offers a multidimensional study of reading practice and sibling rivalry in late eighteenth-century Britain. It enriches scholarly understanding of the reception of Frances Burney's fiction, with broader implications for studies of gender, class, kinship and reading. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Foreword

The story of a young thief's eccentric reading in 18C Scotland - and a new take on Frances Burney's Evelina.

Product details

• Authors: Sophie Coulombeau, Sophie (University of York) Coulombeau, Coulombeau Sophie
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.07.2024
• EAN: 9781009532945
• ISBN: 978-1-0-0953294-5
• No. of pages: 75
• Series: Elements in Eighteenth-Century Connections
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > English linguistics / literary studies; Classic fiction (pre c 1945), Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800, Literary studies: c 1600 to c 1800, Library, archive and information management, Library, Archive & Information Management, Classic fiction: general and literary