Frances Burney: A houstory

Francesca Saggini

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract / Description of output

This article maps Frances Burney’s life and works from the vantage point of material studies, considering the houses the author lived, sojourned, and worked in. The tension between the contending discourses of “public” house and “private” house—the house as a space for entertainment and a cultural hub used to promote visibility and augment cultural capital, as opposed to the “private” house as the locus of intimacy and family life—is exemplified by the juxtaposition between the houses Frances Burney lived in as her father’s daughter (in particular the famous house at 35 St. Martin’s Street, London) and the idyllic Surrey dwellings Burney moved into with her husband, Alexandre d’Arblay, after 1793. This article will consider the symbolic, often mythopoetic value associated with Burney’s houses as artificial, cultural mythoi and her poetics of indirect, oblique association to accrue cultural and social capital.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)223-242
Number of pages20
JournalEuropean Romantic Review
Volume34
Issue number2
Early online date29 Mar 2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Frances Burney: A houstory'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this