Evelina by Frances Burney
'Lord Orville did me the honour to hand me to the coach, talking all the way of the honour I had done him! O these fashionable people!' 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.Frances Burney (1752-1840) was an English novelist, playwright, and satirist. Born in Lynn Regis, England, Burney was the third child of six and began writing at the age of ten. In 1778, Burney published Evelina, her first novel, anonymously. Despite her attempts to conceal her identity--which stemmed from a fear of social condemnation as an upper-class woman--her family and friends soon identified Burney as the author of Evelina, for which she would receive critical acclaim and popularity. Following the success of her debut, Burney would write three more novels--Cecilia (1782); Camilla; Or, A Picture of Youth (1796); and The Wanderer; Or, Female Difficulties (1814)--all of which satirize the lives and social conventions of English aristocrats. Although she wrote plays throughout her career, she was dissuaded from having them performed by her father; Edwy and Elgiva, her only play to be produced, closed after one night due to poor audience reception. Regardless of the hostility she faced as a woman and professional writer, her works were widely read and received praise from such figures as Samuel Johnson, Edmund Burke, Jane Austen, and William Makepeace Thackeray.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780192840318 |
| ISBN 10 | 0192840312 |
| Title | Evelina |
| Author | Frances Burney |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press |
| Year published | 2002-05-01 |
| Number of pages | 499 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |