Name: Evelina
ISBN: 9781775415688

Frances Burney

Evelina is the daughter of an English aristocrat, but is brought up in the country until her seventeenth birthday, because she is of dubious birth and unacknowledged. Once out in London and Bristol-Hotwells, Evelina learns through a series of humorous events how to navigate society, and a nobleman falls in love with her. This sentimental novel with its satirical remarks on society significantly influenced later, similar works, such as those by Jane Austen.

Or, the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World

Evelina

Evelina and Lord Orville are so cute omg 💌

Sophia McKeehan 

‘I do think, that whoever has once seen Miss Anville, must receive an impression never to be forgotten.’

Frances Burney's first and most enduringly popular novel is a vivid, satirical, and seductive account of the pleasures and dangers of fashionable life in late eighteenth-century London. 

As she describes her heroine's entry into society, womanhood and, inevitably, love, Burney exposes the vulnerability of female innocence in an image-conscious and often cruel world where social snobbery and sexual aggression are played out in the public arenas of pleasure-gardens, theatre visits, and balls. But Evelina's innocence also makes her a shrewd commentator on the excesses and absurdities of manners and social ambitions—as well as attracting the attention of the eminently eligible Lord Orville. 

Evelina, comic and shrewd, is at once a guide to fashionable London, a satirical attack on the new consumerism, an investigation of women's position in the late eighteenth century, and a love story. The new introduction and full notes to this edition help make this richness all the more readily available to a modern reader.

Evelina, or, The history of a young lady's entrance into the world

Hannah Alexander 

Novel Ideas

Jana Reetz

Molly M

A story of initiation into the ways of the world for a young, provincial girl, Evelina is both richly comic and gravely moral. It is at once a guide to fashionable London, a satirical attack on the new consumerism, an investigation of women's position in the late eighteeenth century, and a love story. The new introduction and full notes to this edition make this richness all the more readily available to a modern reader.

Evelina Or, the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World

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