Evelina (Bedford Cultural Editions) (Dover Thrift Editions) (Modern Library Classics (eBook))

by Frances Burney

Fanny Burney's Evelina was written in secret and published anonymously in 1778. The story of a young woman entering a society that is seemingly designed to threaten her success, Evelina is an example of the epistolary genre popular in the 18th Century.

• ISBN10: 1853267104
• ISBN13: 9781853267109
• Publish Date: 30 December 1996 (first published 1 April 1965)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 27 June 2008
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Wordsworth Editions Ltd
• Format: Paperback
• Language: English

Reviews

[celinenyx]

Decent intrigue, but the back and forth got tiresome and Evelina's relations are all equally annoying. When I read the blurb, I assumed that the dangers of society that the innocent Evelina encounters in London would include several vices. However, the mean and repetitive danger is that of sexual threat/rape. Every time Evelina goes to any public place, she loses track of her family due to some unfortunate incident, and she is literally grabbed and moved around by several men. One of the most insistent of them, Clement Willoughby, even stuffs her into his carriage and won't stop grabbing her hand while she screams for help. It is truly quite harrowing to read, especially for the feeling of helplessness that pervades the text - despite her constant protestations, Willoughby keeps bothering her, even in the presence of her friends and family members.

While Evelina's troubles might be realistic, they were horrifying to read due to the lack of agency and resources available to her. She has no other hope but to hang onto her chastity, while clearly others are not all that concerned about hurting her or not. Evelina is well-written, and the epistolary format actually worked well for me, but the content was rather bleak and gave me little joy.

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Trigger warnings: ongoing rape-threat (unskippable), suicide and suicide ideation, death of parent, unwanted/unrecognized by other parent.

[Linda]

I own both the paperback and the kindle edition of this book, and I have read and rated both.

I had to read this for class, and while we only read the beginning in class, I found that to be so interesting I decided to write my final essay using this book. Now, I kind of wish I hadn't.

The pacing is frantic, and Evelina is always speaking quickly and loudly, even though everything actually happens in letters. Evelina's naïvete that I found so endearing in the beginning grated on my nerves after a while, and I just wished she would grow up already.

Some of the problems pointed out are very important, even still today, where women are often seen as objects, needing a man to validate them.