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Frances Burney

Evelina

  • Evelina

  • The Penguin English Library Edition of Evelina by Frances Burney

    'O Sir, how much uneasiness must I suffer, to counterbalance one short morning of happiness!'

    In this comic and sharply incisive satire of excess and affectations, beautiful young Evelina falls victim to the rakish advances of Sir Clement Willoughby on her entrance to the world of fashionable London. Colliding with the manners and customs of a society she doesn't understand, she finds herself without hope that she should ever deserve the attention of the man she loves. Frances Burney's first novel brilliantly sends up eighteenth-century society - and its opinions of women - while enticingly depicting its delights.

    The Penguin English Library - 100 editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century and the very first novels to the beginning of the First World War.

Journals and Letters
Journals and Letters
Frances Burney
Evelina
Evelina
Frances Burney

The Penguin English Library

140 Books

Frances Burney (1752-1840) established her reputation with her novel, 'Evelina' (1778). After a period in Queen Charlotte's court, she and her husband, Alexander d'Arblay, were interned by Napoleon and lived in France until 1815. Widowed in 1818, she spent the rest of her life in London. Peter Sabor is Professor of English at Laval University, Quebec. Lars E Troide is Professor of English and Director of the Burney Papers Project at McGill University, Montreal.

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