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Hello. In the early 1800s, the world received six novels by a young woman and literature was never again the same.

Here was a writer whose works stood comfortably next to the greatest writers of the past, the epic poets and dramatists of Greece, the Renaissance Italians, the Elizabethan playwrights,

and they have stood the test of time, with pride and prejudice and sense and sensibility and Emma, and Northanger Abbey and Mansfield Park and Persuasion being as well-known and celebrated today throughout the world as they were in the author's day in her narrow corner of England.

I'm talking about Jane Austen, of course one of our heroes here at the History of Literature, but if we care about Jane Austen, we care about those who influenced her, which brings us to one of her biggest inspirations,

the novelist Francis Bernie, also known as Fanny Bernie or Madame Darbley, who was about 23 years older than Jane Austen and whose novels Evolina and Cecilia were popular in their day and helped Jane Austen develop her own novelistic craft.

And Jane Austen acknowledged the debt with praise, this is from Northanger Abbey, quote, and what are you reading Miss?

Oh, it is only a novel, replies the young lady while she lays down her book, with affected indifference or momentary shame, 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 humor are conveyed to the world in the best chosen language.

End quote, Cecilia Camilla Belinda, two of those novels were by Francis Bernie, but who was Francis Bernie?

How did she come to write these novels and what were they like? How did they change her life and what ended up happening to her?

The story of Francis Bernie today on the History of Literature.

Okay, here we go. Welcome to the podcast. I'm Jack Wilson. You might have noticed that we did not have an episode on Thursday. And yes, that means we are returning to our pre-quarantine routine of one episode per week for the time being at least we were trying to keep you all company during those darkest of days as the world stayed home.

But thankfully, there is now some light at the end of the tunnel. I'm still pretty much stuck at home, not vaccinated yet, but I've gotten busier than ever and I'm looking forward to the easing up of the podcast episodes. I think the quality will also improve. I hope so anyway.

Two episodes plus raising kids plus a full time day job kind of took their toll, but I'm not complaining. It was a good year and there were certainly many things to be thankful for.

And our many things to be thankful for, including my audience of listeners. And let's face it. We're all fortunate to still be here. And that's not something I take lightly. This has been a very, very difficult year for the world.

And I hope you and your family are as safe as can be and as healthy and that we all turn the corner, looking forward and don't end up sliding back into that awful pandemic as it was at its worst. Okay. Francis Bernie, what a great story. She comes from an amazing family and she was herself pretty amazing.

She was said Virginia Wolf, the mother of English fiction. And while she might not today be as well regarded as wolf or Austin or the Brontes, not many people are frankly.

But we can nevertheless celebrate her as a writer, a novelist, a diarist. And of course, we owe her a debt for being a woman writing novels just at the time when a great woman was about to start writing some very great novels herself.

She knows if Jane Austen would have written without Francis Bernie there to pave the way for her, sure that it could be done. We just do not know. I'd like to think she would. But we don't know. We do know that she admired Francis Bernie and revered her books. Okay, let's take our first quick break and then jump right into the history of Francis Bernie.

The publishing industry is a system. Books are mirrors in people's experiences. And in season two of missing pages, we'll take a look at what happens when an old system faces new challenges. This is what happens when you involve money.

I'm Bethan Patrick, literary critic, writer and your host of season two of the missing pages podcast, a show that gives you a ringside seat to some of the juiciest conflicts in the book world. In season two, we're turning up the dial.

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