Caroline Burney was the pseudonym of the author of two early 19th-century

three-volume novel The three-volume novel (sometimes three-decker or triple decker) was a standard form of publishing for British fiction during the nineteenth century. It was a significant stage in the development of the modern novel as a form of popular literatur ...

s published in London: ''Seraphina'' (1809) and ''Lindamira'' (1810). The real identity of the author has not been discovered.

Genre

The novels belong to a genre which had become known in the late 18th century as "modern novels", distinguished by their treatment of sensibility, manners and sentiment, in contrast to the "romances", which were seen as "characteristically extravagant and improbable".

Disclaimer

The novels appeared in London at a time when

Frances Burney Frances Burney (13 June 1752 – 6 January 1840), also known as Fanny Burney and later Madame d'Arblay, was an English satirical novelist, diarist and playwright. In 1786–1790 she held the post as "Keeper of the Robes" to Charlotte of Mecklen ...

, and to some extent her younger sister

Sarah Burney Sarah Harriet Burney (29 August 1772 – 8 February 1844) was an English novelist, the daughter of musicologist and composer Charles Burney, and half-sister of the novelist and diarist Frances Burney (Madame d'Arblay). She had some intermittent ...

, enjoyed fame as novelists. ''Seraphina'' was advertised by its publisher, J. F. Hughes, on 6 and 14 June 1809 in the ''Star'' and 23 June and 5 July 1809 in the ''

Morning Chronicle ''The Morning Chronicle'' was a newspaper founded in 1769 in London. It was notable for having been the first steady employer of essayist William Hazlitt as a political reporter and the first steady employer of Charles Dickens as a journalist. It ...

'' as "Miss Burney's New Novel". Frances Burney (Mme. D'Arblay) was exiled in France at the time and probably unaware of the novels, but their publication under that name was resented at least by Sarah Burney's publisher,

Henry Colburn Henry Colburn (1784 – 16 August 1855) was a British publisher. Life Virtually nothing is known about Henry Colburn's parentage or early life, and there is uncertainty over his year of birth. He was well-educated and fluent in French and h ...

. The following note appeared facing page 1 of the first edition of Sarah Burney's ''Traits of Nature'': "ADVERTISEMENT. The Publisher of this Work thinks it proper to state that MISS BURNEY is not the Author of a Novel called 'Seraphina', published in the Year 1809, under the Name of CAROLINE BURNEY." Sarah refers disparagingly to ''Seraphina'' in a letter to her niece Charlotte Barrett, dated 4 October 1811: "I am scandalized at Sal's fal-lal taste in the literary way.... She ought by this time to like... something in short besides Sir Henry, and Seraphina, & a parcel of stuff only good to put money in the writer's pocket."''The Letters of Sarah Harriet Burney'', ed. Lorna J. Clark. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, pp. 141–142.

References

External sites

Corvey Women Writers on the Web author page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burney, Caroline 19th-century English novelists English women novelists Women of the Regency era Unidentified people Pseudonymous women writers 19th-century English women writers 19th-century English writers 19th-century British writers 19th-century pseudonymous writers