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challenging
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I loved this!
As a big Jane Austen fan, I was excited to get into this knowing that Burney is one of Austen’s inspirations and I definitely got similar vibes from both authors, in terms of comedy, satire and the central romantic relationship.
I love the character of Evelina, this young seventeen year old girl just coming out into the world. The circumstances of her birth were so interesting to me and I was hooked by her journey into discovering her familial relations.
I loved Mr. Orville, the singular decent man in this novel and I loved the growth of his and Evelina’s relationship.
I will say, I did not expect to enjoy the plot as much as I did. But there is a quite a lot going on. From Evelina saving Mr. Macartney from committing suicide to finding out he’s actually her brother ?? Was wild. Shout out to Maccarney actually because this man was going through it.
I also didn’t know expect some of the casual cruelty that was present throughout the novel. The scenes where Mrs. Duval is pushed into a ditch, the old ladies injure themselves while being forced to race other and the violent monkey attack towards the end were definitely surprising.
However I thoroughly enjoyed the way this was written and I had a really good time.
I read this for an 18th Century British Lit class in Grad school and it was the only text I actually enjoyed.
It is an epistolary novel, which can sometimes be tedious and limiting, but in this case it fit perfectly. There are a lot of stock characters/typical tropes of the period but that's okay. It's still a fun, easy read.
The basic plot follows the "orphaned" Evelina as she travels with various friends/family members around the greater London area. Of course there is romance. There are fops and rakes and gentlemen. There are catty, dramatic women. There is a crazy sailor. There are annoying family members. It ends on a happy note.
If you like Jane Austen, you will definitely like this book and you will even be able to see where Austen got many of her characters from. Burney was a great writer and Evelina is a great read.
It is an epistolary novel, which can sometimes be tedious and limiting, but in this case it fit perfectly. There are a lot of stock characters/typical tropes of the period but that's okay. It's still a fun, easy read.
The basic plot follows the "orphaned" Evelina as she travels with various friends/family members around the greater London area. Of course there is romance. There are fops and rakes and gentlemen. There are catty, dramatic women. There is a crazy sailor. There are annoying family members. It ends on a happy note.
If you like Jane Austen, you will definitely like this book and you will even be able to see where Austen got many of her characters from. Burney was a great writer and Evelina is a great read.
This book started out really well, but became very tedious as it went along.
At the beginning, I could identify with Evalina as she did not know how to conduct herself during courting behavior. She ends up telling a lie to deflect an unwelcome suitor, but it turns into an embarrassing scene.
Here's where the story (or lack thereof) drags. Evalina has to stay with her crass grandmother. The grandmother and a male friend of the family argue constantly. Because these people spend all their time going to plays and concerts, I have to wonder where they get their income. Also,Evalina is constantly being propositioned by strange men.
The only reason I plowed through this book was because I committed to read it for a reading challenge. I felt this book was a waste of time.
At the beginning, I could identify with Evalina as she did not know how to conduct herself during courting behavior. She ends up telling a lie to deflect an unwelcome suitor, but it turns into an embarrassing scene.
Here's where the story (or lack thereof) drags. Evalina has to stay with her crass grandmother. The grandmother and a male friend of the family argue constantly. Because these people spend all their time going to plays and concerts, I have to wonder where they get their income. Also,Evalina is constantly being propositioned by strange men.
The only reason I plowed through this book was because I committed to read it for a reading challenge. I felt this book was a waste of time.
Listened to this as an audiobook and it was a great listen — very long but that suited me. It was a classic plot: naïve but bright country girl is manipulated and taken advantage of in city but then wins all in the end. It’s completely told through letters. It was written in the late 1700s and it’s always fascinating to hear what made a great night out for revellers in those days. It was hard to stomach some of the sexist bullying and manipulation that Evelina experienced, and which was presented as just routine treatment. Also hard to stomach the abuse of the French grandmother and her companion mainly on the grounds of them being “foreign”. No doubt our sensibilities reading this in the 21st century are very different, so these portrayals tell us a lot about the society of that time
challenging
funny
informative
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
When I'm forced to read something for school and it's in a genre that I don't like to begin with, I come into reading whatever it may be with severe hatred from the very beginning, regardless. This was one of those cases: school reading+romance=BLAHNO.
But this ended up being a good forced read. Told entirely through the letters of Evelina, mainly between Rev. Villars, the man who raised her, it explores the adventures and trials that an educated, but sheltered country girl has when she's given the opportunity to explore city life.
I didn't really think so at first, but Evelina was actually a lot like me--she much preferred her sheltered country life than that in a big city, seeing the drama of the city as relatively pointless and unrelateable and realizing that society of the time wasn't something that she wanted to be associated with. She was an extremely independent character, especially for when this book was written (the late 1700s), but I was a bit annoyed that she was always asking advice of Mr. Villars, most times about relationships and how a lady should act. She was always around women who were much more experienced with city life and relationships, why didn't she just ask them, instead of asking a man about it? A needless nitpick, yes, but still.
Let's get one thing out of the way though--almost all the men in this book were assholes. Yes, I know it was the 1700s in England and pretentiousness and hoighty-toighty-ness (that makes me sound old, doesn't it?) was looked upon as appropriate and admirable qualities. But I disliked it, and don't at all blame Evelina for being a bit abhorred and disturbed by their ways at the first dance that she attended. Captain Mirvan was quite annoying (and I usually like witty, sarcastic characters), Sir Clement was ALWAYS popping up randomly for relatively unknown reasons other than to annoy Evelina and attempt a love triangle, and the various other men that she was exposed to were generally just assholes--I can think of no better word for them. Mr. Villars was a good character, but his letters were quite dull and I usually skimmed them.
The women in the story were split between tolerable and not, in my mind. Evelina's cousins and her grandma seemed too enamored by their own little worlds and trying to drag Evelina into that world, that I really didn't care for them. The various ladies that she stays with--Lady Howard, Ms. Mirvan, Ms. Selwyn--I found to be tolerable and, I thought, a good influence on Evelina.
The entire relationship with Lord Orville was extremely bipolar and although it was the main relationship, it never seemed that strong to me. Evelina was constantly going back and forth as to whether or not she should like him, and he started out as a tolerable character, but then just got boring for me.
There were some amusing parts and there were many instances where Evelina bravely stood up for herself, even when it wasn't "appropriate" to. She was a strong character and I'm sure would be just as appalled by today's society as she was with that of the 1700s.
In all, a strong three stars. The first few letters really turned me off and I didn't think I'd be able to get into it, some of the style caused me to skim read, as did some of the repetitive events, and the ending was relatively abrupt hapilyeverafterFINSIHED! and anticlimactic. I thought it could have warranted a couple of epilogue letters or something of the sort.
But this ended up being a good forced read. Told entirely through the letters of Evelina, mainly between Rev. Villars, the man who raised her, it explores the adventures and trials that an educated, but sheltered country girl has when she's given the opportunity to explore city life.
I didn't really think so at first, but Evelina was actually a lot like me--she much preferred her sheltered country life than that in a big city, seeing the drama of the city as relatively pointless and unrelateable and realizing that society of the time wasn't something that she wanted to be associated with. She was an extremely independent character, especially for when this book was written (the late 1700s), but I was a bit annoyed that she was always asking advice of Mr. Villars, most times about relationships and how a lady should act. She was always around women who were much more experienced with city life and relationships, why didn't she just ask them, instead of asking a man about it? A needless nitpick, yes, but still.
Let's get one thing out of the way though--almost all the men in this book were assholes. Yes, I know it was the 1700s in England and pretentiousness and hoighty-toighty-ness (that makes me sound old, doesn't it?) was looked upon as appropriate and admirable qualities. But I disliked it, and don't at all blame Evelina for being a bit abhorred and disturbed by their ways at the first dance that she attended. Captain Mirvan was quite annoying (and I usually like witty, sarcastic characters), Sir Clement was ALWAYS popping up randomly for relatively unknown reasons other than to annoy Evelina and attempt a love triangle, and the various other men that she was exposed to were generally just assholes--I can think of no better word for them. Mr. Villars was a good character, but his letters were quite dull and I usually skimmed them.
The women in the story were split between tolerable and not, in my mind. Evelina's cousins and her grandma seemed too enamored by their own little worlds and trying to drag Evelina into that world, that I really didn't care for them. The various ladies that she stays with--Lady Howard, Ms. Mirvan, Ms. Selwyn--I found to be tolerable and, I thought, a good influence on Evelina.
The entire relationship with Lord Orville was extremely bipolar and although it was the main relationship, it never seemed that strong to me. Evelina was constantly going back and forth as to whether or not she should like him, and he started out as a tolerable character, but then just got boring for me.
There were some amusing parts and there were many instances where Evelina bravely stood up for herself, even when it wasn't "appropriate" to. She was a strong character and I'm sure would be just as appalled by today's society as she was with that of the 1700s.
In all, a strong three stars. The first few letters really turned me off and I didn't think I'd be able to get into it, some of the style caused me to skim read, as did some of the repetitive events, and the ending was relatively abrupt hapilyeverafterFINSIHED! and anticlimactic. I thought it could have warranted a couple of epilogue letters or something of the sort.
I loved this book and found myself laughing out lout several times. So glad that I was assigned this one for school.
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
What a lovely adventure—it almost felt like getting a bonus Jane Austen. This epistolary novel is a comedy of manners and is witty, sweet and delightful. Could likely have been 75 pages shorter but authors used to get paid by the volume so.