Passion, Wit and Politics: Fanny Burney and Mme de Stael

Frances Burney, known as Fanny and Anne Louise Germaine Necker were born in England and France respectively in the mid- eighteenth century. Although their upbringings were very different they shared two things - love and respect for their fathers who influenced their future careers and a passion for recording their feelings and opinions in journals and diaries. Young ladies of the time were not generally encouraged to have opinions, much less to write them down, but Fanny Burney and Madame Germaine de Stael persevered and went on to write numerous novels, plays and journals. Through their letters and diaries they recorded major events in European history; Fanny’s time spent at the court of King George III and Queen Charlotte, and Germaine’s experiences in Paris during the horrors of the French Revolution. Love blossoming in later life, marriages, children, family gossip and romantic liaisons are all recorded in Passion, Wit and Politics, a fascinating account of the lives of two remarkable women.