Reading with the Burneys
Patronage, Paratext, and Performance

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

Sophie Coulombeau (Author)

9781009532945, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 27 June 2024

75 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 0.6 cm, 0.277 kg

'The Burneys' reading, discussion, and circulation of Evelina provide a case study of reading as a process of transformation … Although Coulombeau focuses on what she acknowledges is 'one unusual reader's relationship with one extraordinary text,' throughout she gestures toward the broader context of eighteenth-century literature, as well as the ongoing methodological problem that is the history of reading, one of the most difficult aspects of the communications circuit to capture. Reading with the Burneys uses an expanded definition of reading to offer new insights into one of the most canonical novels of the late eighteenth century.' Rachel Scarborough King, SEL Studies in English Literature 1500–1900

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.

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

Subject Areas: Literary studies: general [DSB]