Evelina (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)

by Frances Burney (Author), Edward A. Bloom (Editor), Vivien Jones (Introduction) "OH author of my being!-far more dear..." (more)
Key Phrases: pon honour, Lord Orville, Madame Duval, Sir Clement (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
`Fanny Burney's first novel Evelina was the chick-lit novel of 1778 - all about a young girl's adventures in London, and one of the best of its kind ever written...the Oxford World's Classics edition has a knowledgeable preface by Edward A. Bloom' Derwent May, the Times

Product Description
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.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (July 18, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0192840312
• ISBN-13: 978-0192840318
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #110,110 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delightful and Insightful, July 24, 2004

By	tobb delow (Delray Beach, FL USA) - See all my reviews

Fanny Burney was a big influence on Jane Austen, but she has significant differences. Burney was an urban sophisticate, sexually aware, and with a taste for slapstick humor--and far less sentimental.

The beginning of Evelina is a little hard to get through, but once the title character appears it will have been worth it. Evelina is a country girl who comes to the big city and makes every possible faux pas. Along the way she faces near incest, a bitch of a grandmother, other embarrassing relatives, near rape, clinging prostitutes, and a mischievous monkey. The book is full of unforgettable scenes that stick with you long after you close the cover.

But for all the humor, the book is also moving as Evelina it traces Evelina's moral growth.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Enchanting Characters Superbly Written, February 16, 2005

By	Elizabeth M. Bolle "Reader" (Pacifica, California) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Evelina was my first Burney novel and I simply could not put it down. There is something magical about Fanny Burney's writing style; in particular, the way she describes the young girl in this book. I have read hundreds of books but this one truly captured my imagination. It aids the reader in understanding the finer details of the times in which the author lived better than the finest museum can. When I think about books that have stood out in my mind, Evelina always comes to mind. It is the perfect entree to the world of Fanny Burney. If you love period novels, this is a great one.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Evelina: Starts Out As Innocent & Finishes The Same Way, August 23, 2006

By	Martin Asiner (jersey city, nj United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

EVELINA by Fanny Burney was an immensely popular novel in its day (1778). Published as an epistolary novel, it built upon the tradition of Richardson and Fielding, both of whom wrote of their respective heroes learning to make their way into a hostile world to make their mark. The world as Fanny saw it was one inhabited exclusively by the upper middle class and full of rules that strictly delineated one's place on the social pecking order. Those who are familiar with Jane Austen's relentless focus on formal balls, flouncy bouncy dresses, and quests for marriage with suitably wealthy men will feel quite at home with Fanny. However, where Austen would have Elizabeth Bennett question the propriety of one rule or another, Fanny would have Evelina accept the underlying ideology that upheld the legitimacy of the heavy-handed patriarchy. As Evelina leaves the security of the home of Reverend Villars, who cares for her as his ward, she learns that she may be the daughter of the wealthy and high-born Sir John Belmont. At the beginning of the novel, as at the end, Evelina is the pure innocent. If one denies her flatness of character, it is only because her goodness is heavily diluted with a priggish sense of righteousness. The bulk of the book lies in her quest to find her identity, but the enduring appeal lies in the satiric peeks and pokes that Fanny Burney took along the way. With the exception of the Reverend Villars, nearly everyone else is flawed to one degree. Madam Duval, Evelina's grandmother, is a perpetual victim of ridicule by others, which goes a long way toward explaining her odious character. Her biological father, Sir John, is a pompous oaf who acknowledges his kinship only after he has no choice but to do so. Lord Orville, whom Evelina eventually marries as the supposed hero, is about as full of life as Evelina is of any trait other than her annoying goodness. The lessons that Evelina learns about life from the start to finish are superficial. She learns only how to move about in circles sufficiently well enough to climb that social ladder. Inwardly, she is more knowledgeable, but hardly wiser. Contemporary readers loved EVELINA because they could see that it was a rich vein of oafs, fools, and prigs, all of whom were ready victims, like Madam Duval, to be taken down a peg or two. Modern readers generally read it for the descriptions of a society that are so tightly wound in social caste that they resemble the nonsense world of the cartoon. There might not be such a big difference between the two after all.