A review by kloopo
Evelina by Frances Burney

4.0

I was surprised about how much I enjoyed Evelina - I was looking for 'something like Austen', but in terms of the tone and the 'world' it was set in, it reminded me a bit more of Vanity Fair. Written in letter form, it's a wonderful insight into London (and Bristol) in the late eighteenth century - what shocked me is how much more rude and riotous it all is than, for instance, the world in Austen's novels, and how much more fluid social boundaries were. Evelina (a young woman of respectable birth) encounters some very insalubrious characters throughout her journey - women of sharp wit, embarassing relatives, prostitutes, lecherous men, cruel pranksters, and many others. The sense of threat to virtue is vivid - but then Evelina is never truly tempted, which is disappointing. The love interest Lord Orville is super dull (though unfailingly polite) and Evelina can be annoyingly unflawed as a character; I did struggle to love her at times. Even so, a great story worth reading!