Autograph manuscript, in French, drafts of approximately 40 letters accomplished as thèmes or exercises.
Paris: c.1809-1811]. Approximately 95 pp., written within an 18th-century red morocco gilt 8vo notebook, stamped on the spine "Almanac de 1736." With an additional portion of a thème in Burney's hand on a small sheet tipped to the endpaper. Cross-outs and corrections by Burney throughout. Each letter corrected by means of footnotes with corrections in the lower margin, likely in the hand of her husband Alexandre D' Arblay. With 3pp. of recipes in French at the start of the volume, written in an earlier hand. Provenance : W. Barrett; C. L. Schreiber? (pencil note on the endpaper signed by Schreiber indicating that the notebook was given to her by Barrett); unnamed consignor Sotheby's London, 22 July 1980, lot 474, £2600, Peyraud. Among the correspondents to whom these exercises are addressed are Madame d'Henin, Mdm. de Masionneuve, Mdm. de Simiane, Mdm. de Tesse, Mdm. de Poix, Mdm. de Maubourg, Mdm. de Tracy, Jean Baptiste Gabriel Bazille (M. D' Arblay's uncle) and Barron Larrey (who performed her mastectomy). Most notably, the exercises include a letter to Mdm. Henin in anticipation of the surgery and another to Larrey following the procedure. It is unclear if these letters represent actual letters now lost (not entirely far fetched considering their authorship during the Napoleonic years) or simply exercises in autobiographical epistolary form. There is convincing precedent for the latter, with similar such corrected "letters" written between Burney and D'Arblay at the start of their courtship. Regardless, this notebook presents much information about Burney at the time of her development of breast cancer and ensuing mastectomy and during a time of relatively few extant letters from her pen. These exercises are unpublished and not included in Hemlow's Journals and Letters .
Autograph manuscript, in French, drafts of approximately 40 letters accomplished as thèmes or exercises.
Paris: c.1809-1811]. Approximately 95 pp., written within an 18th-century red morocco gilt 8vo notebook, stamped on the spine "Almanac de 1736." With an additional portion of a thème in Burney's hand on a small sheet tipped to the endpaper. Cross-outs and corrections by Burney throughout. Each letter corrected by means of footnotes with corrections in the lower margin, likely in the hand of her husband Alexandre D' Arblay. With 3pp. of recipes in French at the start of the volume, written in an earlier hand. Provenance : W. Barrett; C. L. Schreiber? (pencil note on the endpaper signed by Schreiber indicating that the notebook was given to her by Barrett); unnamed consignor Sotheby's London, 22 July 1980, lot 474, £2600, Peyraud. Among the correspondents to whom these exercises are addressed are Madame d'Henin, Mdm. de Masionneuve, Mdm. de Simiane, Mdm. de Tesse, Mdm. de Poix, Mdm. de Maubourg, Mdm. de Tracy, Jean Baptiste Gabriel Bazille (M. D' Arblay's uncle) and Barron Larrey (who performed her mastectomy). Most notably, the exercises include a letter to Mdm. Henin in anticipation of the surgery and another to Larrey following the procedure. It is unclear if these letters represent actual letters now lost (not entirely far fetched considering their authorship during the Napoleonic years) or simply exercises in autobiographical epistolary form. There is convincing precedent for the latter, with similar such corrected "letters" written between Burney and D'Arblay at the start of their courtship. Regardless, this notebook presents much information about Burney at the time of her development of breast cancer and ensuing mastectomy and during a time of relatively few extant letters from her pen. These exercises are unpublished and not included in Hemlow's Journals and Letters .
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