Product Description

'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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #64849 in Books
• Published on: 2002-04-18
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 512 pages

Customer Reviews

Evelina
The book itself is in perfect condition, other than a few pages from the middle have come un-stuck but I do think that is my fault for opening it so wide when reading. Although I was "forced" to read it for a university project I found it easy to get "into" the novel and in the end found it really enjoyable.
However, I must mention that a certain character, Sir Clement Willoughby, I wish was never written. He is the most irritating character I have ever come accross and never before have I felt to strongly against a character in a novel. So much so that his mention made me want to put the book down. The thing is just when you think you've read the last of him, he comes right back!