Evelina

Evelina was written by Frances Burney in 1778, and I recently read it.

I quite enjoyed it. There came a point where I couldn’t put it down. Some of the events do seem a bit too coincidental. Poor Evelina has a complicated family history, that not only involves the tragedy of her mother but also the tragedy of her grandmother. And when she is in London the second time, the place where most of her relatives live has as a boarder a young man who unbeknownst to Evelina is connected to her family.

Still it is an enjoyable ride. In some ways, the story is a tale of two trips to London by Evelina with two different sets of people. The first set is made up of close family friends whose whole purpose there is to help Evelina to make the most enjoyment out of this trip. When making plans, they do consider their own desires, but they also consider what Evelina would enjoy as well. And where there are situations where (having never been in London or in so much society before) Evelina is nervous, they do their best to help her through the event whatever it is. These are people Evelina trusts, and so when she makes small social mistakes she listens to them. She knows they are worth listening to.

What a contrast to the second trip to London. This is not a trip of pleasure but of obligation. Evelina is forced, in order to keep from offending them, spend time in London with relatives she has only just met and who on meeting she feels little liking for. It isn’t merely that these relatives are clearly uninformed. Evelina, who has lived a relatively sheltered life knows more than them. But this might be forgiven if they had good hearts. They don’t. The sisters only think of marriage in the most mercenary way. The brother is a philanderer. The Uncle is mercenary. The Grandmother is haughty without even the excuse of having earned it. And not one of them considers Evelina, her opinions or her feelings. During the time that Evelina spends with them in London, never once to they do anything Evelina wants. The only enjoyment she gets are quiet moments away from them or by accident such as at a concert. And then they ridicule Evelina for her enjoyment.

Of course there is romance in the book. There are a number of suitors for Evelina, but the main two are Lord Orville and Sir Willoughby. Lord Orville is what a gentleman should be in the sense of actions. Sadly, some misunderstandings between himself and Evelina due to Evelina’s inexperience in society lead to misunderstandings. Sir Willoughby may have the rank of a gentleman, but he does not act as a gentleman at all, pushing himself on Evelina. She tolerates him only out of politeness and shyness.

It is interesting that Burney uses the epistolary format for this novel. This was soon to go out of fashion, and I can’t say that I blame writers for this. Whatever the advantages of writing in first person, when using the letter format you are not only limited by what the writer knows, you are also limited or at least have to become very creative in finding ways to mention things the reader needs to know but are so common-place to the correspondents they would mention it too briefly if at all in real life. Still, it is a view into a different age when letter writing was extremely important.

Apparently, Jane Austen enjoyed reading Burney, including Evelina, and used her as both inspiration and as a model to contrast with as well, and one can see this in Austen’s own works.