Evelina Or A Young Lady's Entrance Into The World

Written in an epistolary style, Evelina portrays the English upper middle class from the perspective of a young seventeen-year-old woman who has reached marriageable age . A comic and witty novel, the work is ultimately a satire of the kind of oppressive masculine values that shaped a young woman's life in the eighteenth century, as well as of other forms of social hypocrisy. Evelina has been called a' landmark in the development of the novel of manners'. Burney draws attention to difficulties faced by women in the eigtheenth century, especially surrounding questions of romance and marriage. She is described as a' shrewd observer of her times and a clever recorder of its charms and follies'. What critics have consistently found unique and interesting about her writing is the introduction and carefull treatment of a female protagonist, complete with character flaws' who must make her way in a hostile world '. These are recognizable as features of Jane Austen's writing, and show Burney's influence on the later author's work. A testament it its popularity, the novel went through four editions before the end of its print run.