"Evelina" by Fanny Burney - book review

Frances Burney, born in 1752, was a self-educated novelist and playwright. She was one of six children in a family of a well known music historian Dr Charles Burney and Mrs Esther Sleepe Burney. Frances published “Evelina” anonymously in 1778 at the age of only twenty six.

“Evelina” brought her immediate recognition and fame. In fact Burney’s novels had major influence on writing of Jane Austen and William Makepeace Thackeray.

“Evelina” was written as an epistolary novel. It describes English upper classes as well as middle class society as seen through the eyes of a seventeen -year -old girl. The book is a keen satire on male-centered English society in which a woman is exposed to many forms of male oppression as well as social hypocrisy.

“Evelina” is a legitimate, although unacknowledged daughter of British aristocrat. She is brought up in obscurity of rural seclusion, until a series of fateful events bring her out into the spotlight of London society as well as fashionable resort of Hotwells.

During our discussion of the book we noticed how remarkably sexist and hypocritical British society of late 18^th century was. Evelina had nobody to guide her in London, so she had to learn on her own how to navigate the high society in which she had found herself. We were surprised that her adopted father and protector Villars did not come to her rescue personally when she wrote to him of her struggles and perils in which she found herself. Instead he would send her letters with the words of encouragement and praise. We compared Mr. Smith with Sir Clement and found that they were both unscrupulous although Evelina obviously preferred Sir Clement as more refined and of better breeding. Evelina was partial to Lord Orville whom she met at her first ball and who was the most chivalrous of the men who fell in love with her.

In the end Evelina’s father accepts her for his rightful daughter. Lord Orville proposes marriage and the story ends happily.

In our discussion we also noticed other supporting characters such as Captain Mirvan and Madame Duval. Captain Mirvan was bent on humiliating a hurting Madame Duval. It appeared that the other characters in the story were more or less aware of the elaborate and cruel pranks he was playing on poor Madame Duval yet nobody tried to stop him except for Evelina. Captain Mirvan appears as a heartless and cruel person who took particular dislike to foreigners especially if they were French.

Overall most of us found the book well written and entertaining although some of us thought that language was somewhat trying and not easy to read. We gave it 4.250 stars.