Fanny Burney and Her Friends: Select Passages from Her Diary and Other WritingsBurney, Fanny
General
Fanny Burney and Her Friends: Select Passages from Her Diary and Other Writings
Burney, Fanny
Burney, Fanny, 1752-1840 -- Friends and associates
Having obtained the Tancred scholarship, Alexander d’Arblay commenced
residence at Christ’s College, Cambridge, in October, 1813. He
eventually graduated as tenth Wrangler, and became Fellow of his
college. ‘But,’ says Macaulay, who had mixed with his fellow-students,
‘his reputation at the University was higher than might be inferred from
his success in academical contests. His French education had not fitted
him for the examinations of the Senate House;[124] but in pure
mathematics we have been assured by some of his competitors that he had
very few equals.’
‘The Wanderer; or, Female Difficulties’ appeared in the beginning of
1814. Notwithstanding the falling-off which had been observed in
‘Camilla,’ the whole edition of the new work was bespoken before it was
published. In six months, 3,600 copies were sold at two guineas a copy.
But it may be doubted whether the most conscientious reader persevered
to the end of the fifth volume. Ten years of exile had destroyed all
trace of the qualities which made ‘Evelina’ popular.
Dr. Burney lived to his eighty-eighth birthday, and died at Chelsea on
the 12th of April, 1814, in the presence of his recovered daughter, who
had tended his last hours. A tablet to his memory, bearing an
inscription from her pen, was placed in Westminster Abbey.
A few days after his death, Madame d’Arblay was presented to Louis
XVIII. By desire of Queen Charlotte, she attended a reception held by
the restored King in London on the day preceding his departure for
France. Her sovereign—for it must be remembered that she was now a
French subject—paid her the most courteous attention. Addressing her ‘in
very pretty English,’ he told her that he had known her long, for he had
been charmed with her books, and ‘read them very often.’ He bade her
farewell in French, with the words ‘Bonjour, Madame la Comtesse.’
M. d’Arblay had no further reason to complain of Bourbon ingratitude.
Within a few weeks he received a commission in the King’s Corps de
Gardes, and soon afterwards he was restored to his former rank of
Maréchal de Camp. He obtained leave of absence towards the close of the
year, and came to England for a few weeks; after which Madame d’Arblay
returned with him to Paris, leaving their son to pursue his studies at
Cambridge.
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