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A review by katykelly
Evelina: Or, a Young Lady's Entrance Into the World. in a Series of Letters. by Frances Burney
5.0
Wow - a stunning classic I can't believe I'd never heard of or read! This is genius, and though it's very long it speeds along zippily, with laughs all the way through.
Like Les Liaisions Dangereuses, this takes the form of a series of letters, mostly between two correspondents - the young country-raised Evelina, on her first trip to London, and her guardian write back and forth. Evelina relates her daily life, her guardian occasionally comments with his moral guidance and advice.
This is simply incredible. I am a lifelong fan of Austen, and from the tip of others, could see all the way through the influence that Evelina MUST have had on Pride and Prejudice - the similarities between their plots and characters are too much to be coincidence. Austen took a different direction, but this must have been a precursor to Darcy, Collins, Lizzy and Lady Catherine. It simply must.
Burney was incredibly talented at satire and humour. Evelina is just a teenager thrust into the world of London in the 18th century for the first time, but she soon shows herself to be capable and a resourceful young lady. At almost every turn a new suitor makes an advance, some more lasciviously than others. A true gentleman of course makes himself known early on, but of course the course of true love... Her love interest is a fascinating man, less uptight than Darcy, someone we come to know better, and to like.
Evelina's world is a more dangerous one than Elizabeth Bennett's - there is danger to females everywhere - men trying to take advantage at every level of society. Very refreshing to see that current issues of sexual harassment are not new, that Burney is honestly portraying a society where men treated women unfairly and a woman had to be wily to navigate through the perils.
Evelina's story is twisty and brilliant - there is a history of her parentage that flows through the whole book, with relatives making appearances to her advantage and disadvantage at various points - some wonderfully low and lewd relations were my favourites. We also see scenes that wouldn't be out of place in a Monty Python sketch (a race is set up between two old women for a bet! A highway robbery is staged to humiliate and scare an adversary!). It's almost screwball.
But then the period returns and we have scenes at the theatre with lines that could come out of Wilde's plays.
Visitors stay for days and weeks in house they haven't been invited to. Form must be kept, society's rules and conformity restrains Evelina's words and deeds.
She is delightful - comic misadventures, with lots of mistakes and mistaken words and deeds put her in positions of embarrassment, but through her letters to her guardian we feel we can trust her honest narration and see theh ridiculous around her.
I just loved this. I intend to read it again and also to read up on Austen's work in relation to Burney's.
This is referred to by some as 'the first chick-lit'. It is so much more than that but you can see why this is also accurate. Evelina is adorably clueless in many ways, but also a very capable young woman slowly being allowed to blossom and searching for (and eventually finding) true love through adversity and a sea of ridiculous suitors.
Do NOT be put off by the length. I'm going to be pushing this on other readers far and wide.
Like Les Liaisions Dangereuses, this takes the form of a series of letters, mostly between two correspondents - the young country-raised Evelina, on her first trip to London, and her guardian write back and forth. Evelina relates her daily life, her guardian occasionally comments with his moral guidance and advice.
This is simply incredible. I am a lifelong fan of Austen, and from the tip of others, could see all the way through the influence that Evelina MUST have had on Pride and Prejudice - the similarities between their plots and characters are too much to be coincidence. Austen took a different direction, but this must have been a precursor to Darcy, Collins, Lizzy and Lady Catherine. It simply must.
Burney was incredibly talented at satire and humour. Evelina is just a teenager thrust into the world of London in the 18th century for the first time, but she soon shows herself to be capable and a resourceful young lady. At almost every turn a new suitor makes an advance, some more lasciviously than others. A true gentleman of course makes himself known early on, but of course the course of true love... Her love interest is a fascinating man, less uptight than Darcy, someone we come to know better, and to like.
Evelina's world is a more dangerous one than Elizabeth Bennett's - there is danger to females everywhere - men trying to take advantage at every level of society. Very refreshing to see that current issues of sexual harassment are not new, that Burney is honestly portraying a society where men treated women unfairly and a woman had to be wily to navigate through the perils.
Evelina's story is twisty and brilliant - there is a history of her parentage that flows through the whole book, with relatives making appearances to her advantage and disadvantage at various points - some wonderfully low and lewd relations were my favourites. We also see scenes that wouldn't be out of place in a Monty Python sketch (a race is set up between two old women for a bet! A highway robbery is staged to humiliate and scare an adversary!). It's almost screwball.
But then the period returns and we have scenes at the theatre with lines that could come out of Wilde's plays.
Visitors stay for days and weeks in house they haven't been invited to. Form must be kept, society's rules and conformity restrains Evelina's words and deeds.
She is delightful - comic misadventures, with lots of mistakes and mistaken words and deeds put her in positions of embarrassment, but through her letters to her guardian we feel we can trust her honest narration and see theh ridiculous around her.
I just loved this. I intend to read it again and also to read up on Austen's work in relation to Burney's.
This is referred to by some as 'the first chick-lit'. It is so much more than that but you can see why this is also accurate. Evelina is adorably clueless in many ways, but also a very capable young woman slowly being allowed to blossom and searching for (and eventually finding) true love through adversity and a sea of ridiculous suitors.
Do NOT be put off by the length. I'm going to be pushing this on other readers far and wide.