"How, at a moment like this, could she make her purposed confession to her father, whose wounded mind demanded all she could offer of condolement?"

— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)


Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for T. Payne and T. Cadell, Jun., and W. Davies
Date
1796
Metaphor
"How, at a moment like this, could she make her purposed confession to her father, whose wounded mind demanded all she could offer of condolement?"
Metaphor in Context
Camilla remained in a state of accumulated distress, that knew not upon what object most to dwell: her father, shocked and irritated beyond the mild endurance of his character; her brother, wantonly sporting with his family's honour, and his own morals and reputation; her uncle, preparing for nuptials broken off without his knowledge; Edgar, by a thousand perversities of accident, of indiscretion, of misunderstanding, for ever parted from her;---rushed all together upon her mind, each combating for precedence, each individually foiled, yet all collectively triumphant. Nor were even these her sole subjects of affliction: yet another cause was added, in debts contracted from mingled thoughtlessness, inexperience, and generosity, augmented to she knew not what sum, and to be paid by she knew not what means. And this topic, which in itself seemed to her the least interesting, soon, by the circumstances with which it was connected, grew the most pressing of any. How, at a moment like this, could she make her purposed confession to her father, whose wounded mind demanded all she could offer of condolement? How call upon her uncle to be reponsible for what she owed, when she now knew the enormous accounts preparing for him from Clermont, of which he was himself yet uninformed?
(V.ix.5, pp. 109-110; pp. 736-7 in OUP edition)
Categories
Provenance
Searching "mind" in C-H Lion
Citation
At least 2 entries in ESTC (1796).

Frances Burney, Camilla: or, A Picture of Youth. By The Author of Evelina and Cecilia., 5 vols. (London: Printed for T. Payne and T. Cadell, Jun., and W. Davies, 1796). <Link to ProQuest Lion><Link to Volume I in Google Books>

Reading in Camilla (Oxford and New York: OUP, 1983).
Date of Entry
05/29/2013

The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.