Camilla by Fanny Burney
published 1796
She offered to pin [Camilla] up a turban, which should come to next to nothing, yet should be the prettiest, and simplest, and cheapest thing that ever was seen.
Camilla…thankfully accepted the proposal; and Mrs. Mittin, taking a guinea, said, she would pay Mrs. Tillden for the hat, at the same time that she bought a new handkerchief for the turban…
As the turban was made up from a pattern of one prepared for Mrs. Berlinton, Camilla had every reason to be satisfied of its elegance.
comments: Unlikely fact (maybe): this is a book that Jane Austen helped to crowdfund.
In those days you could subscribe in advance to a new book, in order to ensure its publication (so yes, crowdfunding). The sponsors are listed in the book, and there is the name Jane Austen. She also mentions Camilla in Northanger Abbey, twice: it is one of the works (ie novels) she mentions 'in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour, are conveyed to the world in the best-chosen language.'
I discovered some of this from the book I mentioned
recently
--as recommended by blogfriend Trollopian.
And then I set out on reading Camilla.
It is a VERY long book, 900 pages in my edition, a lot
longer than Jane Austen herself aspired to. It was definitely an enjoyable
experience, but I did think it could have been about a third shorter: too many
rounds of misunderstandings and mishaps, too much plot. As with Rossini’s
Barber of Seville (and this is sacrilege to some) my instruction would have
been to remove one whole plotline from the go-round. I would have started by
cutting the entire Tunbridge Wells section, which was very dull.
The story, which is at heart a strong one, gets bogged down
with endless money troubles and social troubles and people not seeing the
truth.
The basis is the two Tyrold brothers: Sir Hugh, who has
several wards, and is a complete dolt, and Mr Tyrold, a vicar with 3x daughters
(Camilla is one of them) and a son, and a ward of his own. They end up living
near each other in Hampshire and the two families spend all their time
together.
Mr Tyrold, in marked contrast to Mr Bennet in Austen’s
Pride and Prejudice, sets aside money every year to make sure that his
daughters will be taken care of in the future. This does not do him much good
in the long run, but at least he is trying.
Sir Hugh (no children of his own) has an estate to
bequeath, and he changes his mind several times as to its ultimate destination. One of the young women,
Eugenia, has great misfortunes: she catches smallpox and is disfigured, and
then falls from a tree in a bizarre seesaw incident, and is now disabled. Sir
Hugh (not wholly incorrectly) blames himself for these disasters, and decides that all his
fortune must go to her, that she must be educated in Latin and Greek, and that
she must marry his young ward.
As the young people go out into the world, there is much
lack of knowledge in society as to which of them is Sir Hugh’s heir, which causes
various young men to take a chance in wooing the various girls.
Camilla is beautiful, but not as beautiful as her cousin
Indiana (they sound like a pair of modern-day Sloane sisters), although a much
nicer character. She is generous and thoughtful while Indiana is selfish and
conceited. There is a young man called Edgar, well-off, who is vaguely
‘intended’ for Indiana, but attracted to Camilla. There are endless adventures
where Camilla behaves a little unwisely, and Edgar judges her very harshly.
Neither of them seems to know that the other likes them – good for lengthening
a book, irritating for the reader.
The Tyrold girls’ brother, Lionel, is one of the most
appalling characters you could wish to come across, a stupid boy who is
completely thoughtless, arrogant, selfish and greedy, and who by various
horrendous actions loses all his own money, nearly everyone else’s, loses a
theoretical inheritance because he extorts money from, and frightens, the
potential benefactor, an elderly man whom he threatens and terrifies to the
point of illness. He places his sisters in all kinds of dangerous, humiliating
and embarrassing situations without the slightest regret, and forces them to
obtain money on his behalf in extremely dubious ways, methods that almost push
Camilla into marriage against her will. He takes her money from her, leaving
her in considerable peril – as well as in serious debt.
She is an idiot to keep going along with this, she is far
too forgiving. When I read a few items about the book online, there was mention
of his ‘high spirits’ and that he is mischievous and likes practical jokes. I
thought he was a truly unpleasant person an absolute out-and-out villain.
Interestingly, it is a literary theme: Georgette Heyer uses
it in her The Convenient Marriage. The daughters of the house have to marry for
money because their father and brother have squandered all the family money on
gambling. In a working class family this would be described as prostitution and
pimping. The brother has quite the role to play in the plot: again I did not
find him as charming as I think intended.
And in Gladys Mitchell’s Come
Away Death, a brother is borrowing money from his sister to pay off a
young woman ‘Boys always have…’ I circle back to Camilla in the post.
Anyway. All this goes on and on, and in a rather Vicar
of Wakefield way everything gets worse and worse –
abduction and forced marriage, debtors’ prison, elopement, stranded in an inn
with no money. Someone is dead, shot on the road Everybody has lost all their
money! No-one is with the right person! No-one will forgive anyone else!
But then it all turns out all right. Though honestly, that
Edgar seems a bit of a pill, but Camilla seems to love him so… (I don’t feel
this is a spoiler strangely enough). The two of them are heading into Edmund
Bertram and Fanny Price territory (Austen’s Mansfield Park) at times, but
Camilla just comes back from the edge, you end up with a soft spot for her.
There is a lot of fascinating detail of going to balls in
Assembly rooms, taking part in raffles for jewellery, and general society life.
There is a mention of the suburbs and shoplifting, which surprised me as
sounding so modern.
I doubt I will ever look at this book again, but it was
definitely a worthwhile read.
Fashion Plate 1795 NYPL
La Belle Assemble, Tales of wonder - caricatures by Gilray, NYPL
It does sound like quite the literary trek, Moira - 900 pages! - and it's interesting that Austen helped to crowdfund it. Some authors (Thackeray was one that occurred to me) can write a longer book and keep it focused and interesting throughout. Others don't fare so well. So I can see how you decided that one go-round was enough for you. Still, there are some interesting plot points here...
ReplyDeleteI wondered if this book had been a serial, which would explain and justify its length, but I don't think so. I guess people just wanted longer books then! and she is good at holding the reader's interest, even if I did get impatient towards the end.
Delete“Mr Tyrold, in marked contrast to Mr Bennet in Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, sets aside money every year to make sure that his daughters will be taken care of in the future.” Somewhere in Pride and Prejudice there’s a passage in which Jane Austen points out that Mr and Mrs Bennett should have been doing exactly this; however because they take it for granted that sooner or later they will have a son who will inherit the estate and look after his mother and any unmarried sisters, they don’t bother. Once they finally realise there will be no son and the estate will go to Mr Collins, they decide it’s too late to start saving.
ReplyDeleteI had a copy of “Camilla” on my shelf for years, started it several times, never got very far and eventually moved it on. Not at present tempted to have another go …
Sovay
You'd have to be prepared to give over the time to it! I always do it the same way with big brick books: set myself a target of so many pages a day, and then I can read something else. And you can think 'in two weeks I'll be done with this'. And it was worth reading.
DeleteSome day I hope to have the time and mental energy. But that day is not this day ...
DeleteLooking at the long list of dramatic events - Jane Austen by contrast manages to write an enthralling novel in which really the only non-everyday occurrence is Wickham's elopement with Lydia - and even that happens off-stage.
Sovay
Yes, Jane Austen a great one for reporting on things that happened offstage...
DeleteEvelina remains the only Burney so far I've had the patience for, but I have read Camilla, a long time ago. I do remember a scene where a bull intrudes on a picnic and one of the very well dressed ladies leaps straight over a stile to get away from it.
ReplyDeleteYes the book is packed with incident in a very linear way: something happens and then something else happens, not always a connection. Do you recommend Evelina?
DeleteI quite enjoyed Evelina. It's much shorter which does help, and there's definitely good stuff in there about hairdressing. It's been a while since I read it, though. I never got around to reading Cecilia or, what was the fourth one, The Wanderer?
DeleteI think Evelina is by far Fanny Burney's best book, written secretly just for fun when she was quite young. After it was published (and very successful) her father started to take an active interest in his daughter's writing, and her books lost the freshness that Evelina has.
DeleteDaniel & Birgitta - thanks both, very helpful. When I finished Camilla, I thought 'well that's Fanny Burney done for me', but you're actually tempting me...
DeleteAdding Evelina to my list!
DeleteSovay
Let me know how you get on
DeleteI don't think I have a 900 page space in my life at the moment for this at least - though I do employ your system for getting through something that is a hard, but worthwhile read. Longer books ... in those days before TV and radio, what else was there for those long winter evenings? Well, cards maybe, but all the same a very long book must have been a godsend. Chrissie
ReplyDeleteYes indeed, we see it through our eyes, but everything was very different then. And there was a lot of reading aloud, which would have made a long book last even longer!
DeleteI take your point about The Convenient Marriage though I do find Pelham and his friend Pomeroy quite entertaining, if not exactly charming. The rest of the Winwoods are great enablers, treating Pelham’s excessive gambling as an ineradicable family characteristic of which they are, on the whole, proud - presumably Lionel Tyrold's family take a rather different view.
ReplyDeleteSovay
very good description of their attitude -- it's a sign of his aristocratic upbringing. I'm not sure the Tyrold family really work out their view of Bad Lionel, though they are suitably horrified by his putting the frighteners on the old man.
DeleteI started to read "Evelina" which is in the form of letters, mostly from the heroine to her guardian. She seemed very human to me, a girl from the country going into London society and enjoying it, but making social blunders and dealing with different sorts of people. But when the plot really started to unfold I kind of lost interest...just a personal thing, a bit too melodramatic for me. Burney also wrote journals which are said to be lively and observant, probably more in my line. She spent five years as "second keeper of the robes" to Queen Charlotte and apparently hated it! It also kept her from writing. Later on, she married a Frenchman and had one child. She also had a mastectomy WITHOUT ANASTHESIA and wrote about that experience--yikes!
ReplyDeleteShe was a fascnating woman - I knew a few things about her, but I learned a lot more from the book mentioned above, about Austen's favourite writers. An extraordinary life.
DeleteApparently the ending pages of Burney's second novel contain the phrase "pride and prejudice" --coincidence or no?
DeleteThis is discussed in the book by Rebecca Romney mentioned in the post
DeleteI've read Fanny Burney's account of her surgery - in fact it's that that comes first to my mind when her name is mentioned, rather than any of her novels, and reminds me that whatever the stresses and drawbacks of modern life, there are good reasons for NOT wishing oneself back in the Enlightenment.
DeleteRebecca Romney book looks interesting - already on my list (but I'm waiting for the paperback).
Sovay
Yes, it is a salutary reminder.
Deletethe Romney book is SO interesting - but all too likely to have you adding too many books to your list, and not short ones either.
I have just discovered your blog and found your comments on Camilla very interesting. A dear friend of mine taught a course on Fanny Burney many years ago and read all of her novels by way of preparation! I have only managed Evelina which I quite enjoyed.
ReplyDeletethank you! I really must move on to Evelina...
Delete