I actually read Evelina way back in February, but got distracted and never wrote it up. So here I am to enthuse about this 512-page novel by Fanny Burney, who was a lady-in-waiting at court and one of the first women novelists. Like many early novels, it is in an epistolary format--it is composed entirely of letters between characters, who keep each other updated on events and reveal important plot points at the right time.
Evelina is the 16-year-old heroine. She is, of course, perfectly beautiful and angelically good, but she has never moved in society and is quite ignorant of how to behave in social situations. She has been raised by her elderly guardian; her mother is dead and her wealthy father refuses to acknowledge her, though she is legitimate. Evelina goes on a visit to family friends, who then take her on an unexpected trip to London. She has no idea how to act at balls or assemblies and innocently causes offense to several people. Every man who sees her promptly falls in love and tries to take advantage of her, and she runs into several rather awful relatives who frequently embarrass her. Nothing ever seems to go right, but she does meet one good man whom she feels she can respect. Of course, in the end she marries the right man and even reconciles with her repentant father, but there are plenty of difficulties along the way.
I loved the book and couldn't put it down--I finished it in a couple of days. Evelina is a strange heroine to modern minds; she hardly ever does anything. For Burney, much of Evelina's virtue resides in her passivity, and she spends an inordinate amount of time fainting or crying or just not knowing what to do. Even so, it's a lot of fun to read and I enjoyed it very much.
I'm about halfway through my third book of the challenge--Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror.
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