BURNEY (FANNY, 1752-1840, novelist, Madame D'Arblay) FINE AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED ('Fd'A'), to her brother Charles ('Carlos'), asking him if he thinks, as she certainly does, that the second edition of Cecilia 'is retarded on account of the last payment', and suggesting, with Mr d'Arblay's consent, that the payment be relinquished until a later time, complaining that the book is never advertised, not even in the lists of the joint publishers Cadell and Payne, stating her preference 'plumply & openly' to negotiate a new contract rather than see the second edition delayed ('...We all know there are modes of slackening, as well as of accelerating sales...'), referring to the success of the first edition ('...gone, within a few hundreds, by the Publisher's own acknowledgement, 4 or 5 months after publication...') and mentioning her wish to make corrections ('& not a little curtailing here & there') for the new edition; the letter also teems with family news delivered in her characteristic manner, including giving an amusing account of her 'many-named' son's meeting with the Queen ('...when Her Majesty gave him, most sweetly & graciously, a play thing called Noah's Ark containing little representations of animals, & I asked him what he had to say for it, he most simply answered, looking innocently in her Face "Sanky, Queen!"...'), commenting on the gift of a rare book by the celebrated book-collector Lord Spencer, the name of which she was not able to catch whether 'it is too heathenish for the pronunciation of those who mentioned it, or for the Ear of her who heard it' ('twas the deed, & the donor, that charmed me'), expressing pleasure at her father's return 'laden with food for his 5 or 6 shelves' and asking her brother to imagine his 'rapture' in supplying the want of the Iliad and Odyssey, sending news of their sister Charlotte Ann ('The Wife of Bath') and sympathising with him about the recurrent fits of depression suffered by his wife Rosette, while at the same time asking for news of his 'own fortitude upon such repeated trials', 4 pages, quarto, integral address panel, postal markings, seal tear in blank area repaired, West Hamble near Dorking, 18 March 1798

Letters by Fanny Burney are rarely offered for sale. The present letter is the only one relating to and naming one of her books to have been offered for sale in the last twenty-five years at least.

Cecilia sold so rapidly when first published that the booksellers could not supply their clientele. Dr Burney had sold the copyright to Payne and Cadell for £250 and it was they who made the profits from the 2,000 copies they issued. Fanny Burney herself lamented: 'Miss Cholmondeley told me she understood I had behaved like a poor simple thing again, & had a Father no wiser than myself!' The letter is published in The Journals and Letters of Fanny Burney, edited by Joyce Hemlow, volume IV, pp. 124-126.

£3,000