Raised in seclusion until her seventeenth birthday, Evelina is exposed to London society for the first time while in the company of the fashionable Lady Howard. Evelina’s lack of aristocratic upbringing quickly becomes apparent, but undaunted by her lack of awareness of the customs and conventions of eighteenth-century London, Evelina strives to win the love of established nobleman Lord Orville.
Published anonymously, Frances Burney’s Evelina is a satirical novel that conveys one young woman’s coming-of-age in highly aggressive, and fashionable eighteenth-century society. Evelina’s innocent commentary perfectly depicts the isolating effect of these customs, while also criticizing them, and provides shrewd commentary on the spectacle and formalities of English society.
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