"Tres Liez Ensemble" Sarah Harriet Burney and her Publishing Liaisons

The business of books, in the Romantic Period in Britain, was a pan-European affair. A new kind of publisher began marketing fiction on both sides of the Channel. The resulting competition to publish novels – and series of “classic”, “popular” and “modern” works for eager readers – involved multiple agents. In this article, I look at Sarah Harriet Burney’s relationships with London-based publishers and booksellers the Robinsons, Henry Colburn, Dulau and Thomas Tegg. I argue that she is an author whose career should be read in the context of work on women writers’ understanding of themselves as “professionals”. In examining some intriguing passages from Sarah Harriet’s correspondence as well uncovering evidence provided by rare books, and publishers’ archival material, I reveal her talents as an accomplished networker, and as one who played a mediatory role for publishers on the make. Sarah Harriet is revealed, too, as an editor and translator of fiction, and as a writer who contributes to the extensive cross-Channel exchange in the post-Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods.