"Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay" by Thomas Babington Macaulay

Frances Burney—better known after her marriage as Madame D’Arblay—was one of the most remarkable literary figures of late-eighteenth-century England. Her first novel, Evelina (1778), was published anonymously and took London society by storm for its wit, psychological insight, and vivid portrayal of manners. Later works such as Cecilia and Camilla helped define the emerging genre of the English novel, influencing Jane Austen and others who followed. Burney’s later years, spent partly in France amid the turmoil of the Revolution, were recorded in her diaries and letters—an extraordinary firsthand chronicle of society, politics, and personal endurance.

Our reading for this discussion is Thomas Babington Macaulay’s 1843 review of The Diary and Letters of Madame D’Arblay, published in The Edinburgh Review and later collected in his celebrated Critical and Historical Essays. Macaulay, one of the Victorian era’s most brilliant prose stylists, combined formidable learning with a rhetorical energy that made his essays models of English historical writing. A Whig historian and statesman, he was known for turning biography and criticism into high drama—his sentences surge with rhythm and conviction, often sweeping the reader along even when his judgments are debatable.

The Edinburgh Review, founded in 1802, was the leading intellectual periodical of its day and the flagship of liberal opinion in Britain. Its essays—long, argumentative, and elegantly written—set the standard for public discourse in the early nineteenth century. Macaulay’s contributions helped make it famous; his review of Madame D’Arblay is among his finest, balancing affectionate admiration with sharp criticism and animated storytelling. The essay revives an entire age: the drawing rooms of Dr. Johnson, Burke, and Sheridan; the beginnings of the modern novel; and the life of a woman navigating fame, duty, and creativity in a male-dominated literary world.

Join us for this discussion of this review—both as a portrait of Burney and as a masterpiece of Victorian criticism. We’ll consider Macaulay’s style, the historical context of The Edinburgh Review, and the continuing fascination of Madame D’Arblay’s life and diaries.

Links to the work:
Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/28046/pg28046-images.html
Librivox has an audio reading of this work: https://librivox.org/diary-and-letters-of-madame-darblay-by-thomas-babington-macaulay