Evelina

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 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 public arenas of pleasure-gardens, theatre visits, and balls. Evelina's innocence also makes her a shrewd commentator on manners and social ambitions and attracts the attention of Lord Orville.

Evelina is a comic and shrewd novel that serves as a guide to fashionable London, a satirical attack on consumerism, an investigation of women’s position in the late eighteenth century, and a love story. The edition includes a new introduction and full notes to help modern readers appreciate its richness.