Conference presentation for Fémin|in|visible at the Université de Lausanne, 2017

1. WRITING ACROSS
BORDERS
Cultural-linguistic transfer in the correspondence of Germaine de Staël and Frances Burney

2. This is a tale of two writers, whose lives intersect in 1793. In
the midst of the French Revolution, Frances Burney and
Germaine de Staël, both influential writers, one British the
other Swiss, became friends and then, very painfully broke up.
By closely reading the epistolary remains of this exchange, I
argue that Burney defines herself as a woman writer in
contrast to Staël, playing on British and French difference.

3. Agenda
I. Language and
cultural
identity
II. Definition of
British and
French
difference
III. Sexuality and
acceptable
femininity
“Juniper Hall” by Ian Capper

4. Date Event
1752 Frances Burney born
1766 Germaine de Staël (née Necker) born
1778 Evelina published
1782 Cecilia published
1786 Burney becomes Keeper of the Robert to Queen Charlotte
Staël marries Eric Magnus de Staël-Holstein
1788 Lettres sur les ouvrages et le caractère de J. J. Rousseau published
Staël relationship with Narbonne commences
Necker recalled as Finance Minister to France
1789 French Revolution
Estates General
National Assmebly
1790 Termination of Necker's tenure as Finance Minister
1791 Burney retires from court
Legislative Assembly
Narbonne nominated to Minister of War
1792 Narbonne's post as Minister of War ends after 3 months
Burney visits her sister, Susanna Phillips, at Norbury Park
Jan-May 1793 Staël arrives at Juniper Hall; she travels back and forth between Surrey and London
July 1793 Burney marries Alexandre d'Arblay
1796 Camilla published
1802 Delphine published
d'Arblay family moves to France
1807 Corinne published

5. Agenda
I. Language and
cultural
identity
II. Definition of
British and
French
difference
III. Sexuality and
acceptable
femininity
“Juniper Hall” by Ian Capper

6. LANGUAGE AND
CULTURE

7. L. 47 Frances Burney to Mrs. Locke
14 February 1793
Staël’s letter is “quite beautiful in ideas, & not
very reprehensible in idiom. But English has
nothing to do with elegance such as theirs—
at least, little & rarely.”
The Journals and Letters of Fanny Burney (Madame d’Arblay). Ed. Joyce Hemlow. Oxford: The Clarendon
Press, 1972.

8. Staël to Miss Burney
February 1793
“Your card in French, my dear, has already
something of your grace in writing English: it
is Cecilia translated”
Madame de Staël Correspondance Générale. Tome II. Ed. Béatrice W. Jasinski (1963) Chez Jean-Jacques
Pauvert, pp. 389.

9. De la littérature(1800)
“Heurex le pays où les écrivains sont tristes,
où les commerçants sont satisfaits, les
riches mélancoliques, et les hommes du
people contents!”
De Staël, Germaine. Œuvres Complètes. Tome I, II. Ed. Stéphanie Genand. Paris: Honoré Champion
Éditeur, 2013, pp. 243.

10. For Staël, the linguistic difference is easily traversed; the
individual and her feelings matter more. For Burney, this is not
so. Linguistic difference is a marker of cultural difference that is
not so easily overlooked.

11. FRENCH AND BRITISH
DIFFERENCE

12. Although Staël is famous for being the comparatist, Burney
does quite a bit of it herself. Roughly 10 years after the initial
encounter between Staël and Burney, Burney’s life has changed
considerably. Having married a Frenchmen in July of 1793, she
had then moved to France in the early 1800s. While there, she
meets several admirable Frenchwomen in Paris. Staël also
reappears during this time, and through the juxtaposition of
these women in Burney’s writing, she concretizes Britishness,
Frenchness and her ideas about acceptability.

13. L. 513 To Doctor Burney
22-24 April 1802
“If gratified in the first instance by a
politeness of attention as little my due […]
how was my pleasure in it enhanced when I
found they all three spoke English with the
utmost ease & fluency!”
The Journals and Letters of Fanny Burney (Madame d’Arblay). Ed. Joyce Hemlow. Oxford: The
Clarendon Press, 1972.

14. L. 513 To Doctor Burney
22-24 April 1802
“She is a sweet Creature, & I am the more
tempted to admire & to like her, from the
novelty to my expectations of beholding, in
France, so much loveliness of Youth & beauty
in a faithfully attached Wife, & tenderly
affectionate Mother”
The Journals and Letters of Fanny Burney (Madame d’Arblay). Ed. Joyce Hemlow. Oxford: The Clarendon
Press, 1972.

15. L. 514 to Doctor Burney
24-25 April 1802
“gives […] great assemblies, at which all Paris
assist, & though not solicited, or esteemed by
her early friends & acquaintances, she is
admired & pitied”
The Journals and Letters of Fanny Burney (Madame d’Arblay). Ed. Joyce Hemlow. Oxford: The Clarendon
Press, 1972.

16. FEMININITY AND
SEXUALITY

17. Burney and Staël’s attitudes toward femininity are
somewhat polarized. Where Staël sees commonality and
community, Burney sees trouble. Burney repudiates Staël
for her behavior, most notably for having an extramarital
affair. In doing so, Burney draws the lines of acceptability.
She posits Staël as the antithesis to her own polite,
British model of womanhood. By emphasizing Staël’s
sexual transgressions, she renders her own
transgressions, of being a woman who dared to write
and publish, less visible.

18. To Edward Gibbon
26 February 1793
“Miss Burney qui s’est pris[e] de belle
passion pour moi parce que nous
sommes toutes deux des blue stockings”
de Staël, Germaine. Madame de Staël Correspondance Générale. Tome II, II. Éd. Béatrice W. Jasinski.
Paris: Jean-Jacques Pauvert, 1965.

19. L. 51 To Doctor Burney
22 February 1793
“she loves him even tenderly, but so openly, so simply,
so unaffectedly, & with such utter freedom from all
coquetry, that if they were two Men, or two women,
the affection could not, I think, be more obviously
undesigning.”
The Journals and Letters of Fanny Burney (Madame d’Arblay). Ed. Joyce Hemlow. Oxford: The
Clarendon Press, 1972.

20. Letter Continued
“She is very plain;--he is very handsome;--
her intellectual endowments must be with
him her sole attraction.”
The Journals and Letters of Fanny Burney (Madame d’Arblay). Ed. Joyce Hemlow. Oxford: The
Clarendon Press, 1972.

21. L. 237 To Mrs. Phillips
3 April 17 – 17 May 1797
“She is a very great woman, but thrown
out of her sphere by an ambition that
has no bounds.”
The Journals and Letters of Fanny Burney (Madame d’Arblay). Ed. Joyce Hemlow. Oxford: The
Clarendon Press, 1972.

22. WHY?

23. L. 515 To Mrs. Locke
April – May 1802
“an intimacy formed with a dear
departed Angel in ignorance of all that
has since been so repulsive”
The Journals and Letters of Fanny Burney (Madame d’Arblay). Ed. Joyce Hemlow. Oxford: The Clarendon
Press, 1972.

24. L. 237 To Mrs. Phillips
1797
“Blame her as I may, I never can hate her”
“praise her as I may, must & will, I never can
vindicate nor esteem nor respect her”
The Journals and Letters of Fanny Burney (Madame d’Arblay). Ed. Joyce Hemlow. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1972.

25. CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
Burney differentaties herself as a writer from Staël through:
• language
• Idealized national character
• Acceptable femininity