In her fifties, Mrs. Frances Trollope became famous overnight for her book attacking the United States. Twenty-five years later, she sharpens her pen for her most controversial work yet -- the biography of her old friend, the radical and feminist Fanny Wright. She recalls the 1820s when the young Fanny erupted into the Trollopes' sleepy English cottage like a volcano, her red hair flying, her talk aflame with utopian ideals. Before long, Wright convinced her to follow her to America, a journey of extreme penury, frontier hardships, and the most satisfying sensual romance of Frances Trollope's life. Fanny: A Fiction is a wonderful new departure for Edmund White -- a quirky, dazzling story of two extraordinary nineteenth-century women, and a vibrant, questioning exploration of the nature of idealism, the clay feet of heroes, and the illusory power of the American dream.
"Jong . . . filled a gap in the great tradition of the picaresque novel. . . . Linguistically, "Fanny" is a tower of strength. . . . Jong has gone farther than Joyce."--Anthony Burgess, "Saturday Review."
These two fragments of novels, Ingeborg Bachmann's only untranslated works of fiction, were intended to follow the widely acclaimed Malina in a cycle to be entitled Todesarten, or Ways of Dying. Although Bachmann died before completing them, The Book of Franza and Requiem for Fanny Goldmann stand on their own, continuing Bachmann's tradition of using language to confront the disease plaguing human relationships. Through the tales of two women in postwar Austria, Bachmann explores the ways of dying inflicted upon the living from outside and from within, through history, politics, religion, family, gender relations, and the self.Bachmann's allegiance to the twin muses of memory and history, as well as her perception of fascism as not being limited to the context of the war but also existing within the intimate relations of everyday life between husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, psychiatrists and patients' are supremely evident in The Book of Franza. Here, Bachmann follows a woman who escapes from a sanitorium and, after years of silence, sends her brother a cryptic telegram. Rightly suspecting that she has fled her sadistic husband -- a renowned Austrian psychiatrist whose intimate relations have merged with his studies of concentration camps -- her brother finds her in their childhood home. Together they travel to Egypt, where Franza slowly begins to regain her bearings. But Franza's desire to cleanse herself by journeying into the heart of the desert's void ends in tragedy, as she becomes the victim of a horrible act of violence.Unlike Franza, who attempts to flee her past but fails, the heroine of Requiem for Fanny Goldmann makes no attempt to escape her history. Thisnovel tells of the demise of a Viennese actress who is manipulated by a younger, ambitious playwright to advance his career. Deception follows disloyalty; the final treachery comes when the playwright portrays her in a novel, which secures his fame and, in Fanny's eyes, robs her of her future. Caught in a perpetual stasis, Fanny suffers in total obscurity, as her present is stolen from her as well.Whether analyzing the place where the self begins and the power of history ends or the ways in which women are forced to be complicit in their mistreatment at the hands of men, Bachmann's critical approach to the human psyche is unparalleled. Mesmerizing and profound, The Book of Franza and Requiem for Fanny Goldmann constitute the final evidence that Ingeborg Bachmann is the most important female German-language writer of the postwar period.
As the author of "Evelina" and "Cecilia", both of which created new dimensions for the novel, Fanny Burney is as well remembered for her memoirs of Johnson, her mastectomy and her account of the Battle of Waterloo. This portrait of Burney paints a picture of this forward-looking woman.
A love story as implausible as this must be true. Their first date was arranged by a professional matchmaker. A deal, a pragmatic matter that had nothing to do with romance - that's how it all began. Not long after the engagement was settled, Gabriel was sent to war. The year was 1914. Like Penelope and her Odysseus, Fanny waited for him. This was just the beginning of a romance spanning seven decades of passion and rage, desire and contempt, estrangement and attraction. This love story, set against a backdrop of the major historical events of the twentieth century, is also the story of the era's biggest Jewish dilemma: the choice between the promise of life in America and a new Jewish state in Palestine. While Fanny and Gabriel find themselves on opposite sides of this conflict, fate reunites them. Both a torment and an anchor, their love is an ember that never dies. Fanny and Gabriel are more than just incredible characters - they were author Nava Semel's very own grandmother and grandfather. With her unique literary talent, Semel weaves and reconstructs their story, piecing together the fragments of their extraordinary life. Fanny and Gabriel was first published in Israel in July 2017, just a few months before Semel's death. It topped the best seller lists, received rave reviews, and found an adoring audience of readers.
Novelist and playwright Frances (Fanny) Burney, 1752-1840, was also a prolific writer of journals and letters, beginning with the diary she started at fifteen and continuing until the end of her eventful life. From her youth in London high society to a period in the court of Queen Charlotte and her years interned in France with her husband Alexandre d'Arblay during the Napoleonic Wars, she captured the changing times around her, creating brilliantly comic and candid portraits of those she encountered - including the 'mad' King George, Samuel Johnson, Sir Joshua Reynolds, David Garrick and a charismatic Napoleon Bonaparte. She also describes, in her most moving piece, undergoing a mastectomy at fifty-nine without anaesthetic. Whether a carefree young girl or a mature woman, Fanny Burney's forthright, intimate and wickedly perceptive voice brings her world powerfully to life.
Join Fanny's journey through the shadows of Victorian London in 'Fanny by Gaslight' by acclaimed historian Michael Sadleir. Born into a world of darkness and vice, Fanny rises above the degradation that surrounds her, embodying strength and resilience. As she navigates the treacherous streets, Fanny finds unexpected companionship with her elusive father and discovers love in the arms of a soulmate. Amidst the challenges faced by her closest friend Lucy in the perilous world of theater, Fanny's own path takes a tragic turn when her betrothed is cruelly snatched away. Set against the backdrop of Victorian society, this poignant narrative sheds light on the struggles and triumphs of women in an era defined by societal constraints and inequality.
Mansfield Park is the only novel in which Jane Austen gives her readers a glimpse of an alternative result and reveals that Fanny's fate might have been very different. Fanny, A Mansfield Park Story answers that possibility and further explores the lives and choices of Austen's fascinating and delightful cast of characters.
Fanny Goldman contacts the Feed Us Channel to kvetch and lands her own cooking show because she slept with the producer almost forty years before. Throughout her life, Fanny copes with adversity by absurdity. Fanny shares heartbreak and happiness with her own brand of Bronx humor as well as the recipe that created chair-twerking for seniors!
A raucous, bawdy, and hilarious investigation of the South through the unforgettable voice of Fanny, Nickole Brown's fierce, tough-as-new-rope grandmother.
