ABSTRACT
In Camilla Frances Burney defines the kind of sensibility possessed by her heroines as "that delicate, but irregular power, which now impels to all that is most disinterested for others, now forgets all mankind, to watch the pulsations of its own fancies". That Burney was pursuing epic aims in Camilla is suggested most overtly by significant allusions to The Aeneid in the names of two of her female characters. Her story is the story of that conflict which requires of her, not the physical courage with which she is naturally endowed, but a new kind of heroic action—action based on restraint and self-control by which alliances can be formed that promise both personal fulfillment and national security. Burney's Camilla reveals a complex of character traits, including physical courage, impulsiveness, sensibility, and the capacity to love actively. Camilla does record the replacement of one "empire" and its cultural habits and values with a new "empire" with different cultural habits and values.
