The Romance of Private Life:
by Sarah Harriet Burney
Editor: Lorna J Clark
Chawton House Library
Chawton House Library: Women's Novels
Hb:
448pp:
June 2008
978 1 85196 873 2: 234x156mm: £45.00/$85.00
978 1 85196 873 2: 234x156mm: £45.00/$85.00
Burney’s last novel, The Romance of Private Life (1839) contains two striking tales. Based on her travels on the continent, The Renunciation presents a colourful picture of life abroad. An English girl travels to Italy in search of kin and supports herself as an artist, offering an early feminist heroine. The Hermitage is a gripping psychological thriller involving a ruined country maiden and an unsolved murder. With shades of the Gothic, it offers a case-study of the after-effects of trauma, anticipating the genre of the detective novel and challenging prevailing critical assumptions of the patriarchal origins of the genre.