Camilla, or, A Picture of Youth

1796

De Beer Eb 1796

London: Printed for T. Payne, and T. Cadell Jun, and W. Davies

Jane Austen’s name is printed in the subscription list to Fanny Burney’s Camilla, which was first published in 1796. Indeed, Austen made reference to Burney’s third novel – subtitled ‘A Picture of Youth’ – in Northanger Abbey: ‘ “And what are you reading, Miss — ?… It is only Cecilia, or Camilla, or Belinda; or, in short, only some work 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.’ Burney (1752–1840) started ‘scribbling’ early, and over her writing career produced four novels, eight plays, one biography, and volumes of journals and letters. In Camilla, she targets her light and frothy satire on the marriage concerns of the young.