Evelina by Frances Burney

1. Evelina by Frances Burney A presentation by Mimi

2. Meet the Author- Frances Burney • Frances Burney born in 1752 was the daughter of Dr. Charles Burney and Esther Sleepe Burney • Her father preferred her sisters to her and one of her sister’s was a musical child prodigy • She was understandably hit hard by the death of her mother and her father remarried- her relations with her step-mother were uneasy • A family friend, Samuel Crisp supported Frances to write • Queen Charlotte offered Frances the role of “Keeper of the Robes” in 1785 with a salary of 200 per annum. Frances accepted in 1786 • Frances very much prioritized her writing (she also kept a journal) and therefore because the “Keeper of the Robes” was very draining and tiring she left the position • She had breast cancer and had her left breast amputated in 1811 without anesthetic (mastectomy). She writes details of the horrific procedure in a letter to her sister • She married late to an impoverished French officer called Alexandre d'Arblay and this was a really happy time for her but he then died • Frances wrote other books took with similar title formats. For example: Cecelia; or the memoirs of an heiress, Camilla; or the Portrait of Youth (these two although longer than Evelina were still well received) and her final novel was: The Wanderer; or female Difficulties. This last book was more political and feminist and therefore a change to her previous works.

3. Book Reviews • ‘Burney Peculiar’- This Guardian article by Andrew Marr reviews Claire Herman’s book on Fanny Burney’s life, called: Fanny Burney: a biography. It is a fairly mixed review which acknowledges Burney’s huge influence on writers such as Jane Austen, Thackeray and Dickens and calls Evelina “ a brilliant work still, a sharp, hard epistolary novel which is better than anything by Richardson and compares well with Fielding or Smollett”. However, the book review then goes on to comment that the biographer (Claire Herman) becomes disenchanted with the subject of Burney’s life after the “fairy-tale success of Evelina” and “from her (the biographer’s) increasingly cool tone, clearly does not much like her subject by the end and, inevitably, some energy drains away from the narrative as a result” • If I were doing a book review on Evelina? I would describe the book as a witty and almost playful yet purposeful narrative putting us into the shoes of a young seventeen-year old girl to really see the intimate goings on of eighteenth century life from an angle hitherto unexplored

4. Evelina and Pamela • Both are stories of ‘winners’ who attain “virtue rewarded”. It ends in happy marriages that are also financially well off • In Pamela the key words are ‘virtue’ and ‘prudence’. It is slightly different in Evelina but still Evelina “has a natural love of virtue” (346) • Male heroes- we have rakes and fops such as Mr. Lovell and Sir Clement in Evelina. Lord Orville is wholly good. Mr. B., on the other hand is the reformed gentleman • Evelina, unlike Fanny Hill, is good in a similar way to Pamela. The difference is whilst Pamela makes next to no mistakes, Evelina makes improprieties because she is not acquainted with coming out. She is a victim of circumstance so to speak

5. Evelina and Betsy Thoughtless- James Erigkson’s article Evelina and Betsy Thoughtless • John Dunlop made the theory that Eliza Haywood’s History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless (1751) had inspired Frances Burney’s Evelina (1778) • Both Betsy and Evelina are young ladies making their first visits to London • Both heroines are basically good • Both stay with relatives they are ashamed with at some point-Betsy and Lady Mellasin, Evelina and Madame Duval • Miss Mabel and Miss Mirvan (close friends to each heroine respectively) • Both Betsy and Evelina are orphans of sorts • Immorality associations- Betsy with Flora and Miss Forward, Evelina with Polly Branghton • Both heroines receive deceptive letters- Flora’s poison-pen letter and Sir Clement’s fake Lord Orville letter • However whilst Betsy Thoughtless comes to 225,000 words we feel we have learned all but felt none of it whereas of Evelina’s 175,000 words we feel it all

6. Silence in the novel • “So far was I from daring to speak, that I knew not where even to look” (79) • ”I even attempted to rise, and could not, but sat still, mute and motionless” (87) • “I should have been best pleased to remain wholly silent in our ride home” (98) • “I could not immediately answer; I seamed choaked, and was even forced to support myself by the garden gate” (302) • “I did not, just then, dare trust my voice to make any objection” (304)

7. Similarities to Sense and Sensibility • “Lord Orville has too much sense” • Evelina has sensibility, which is increased through the intimate style of journal “writing to the moment” aspect. She only lacks sense because she is so young and from the country • Mr. Arthur Villiers – a man of sense and sensibility? His nobility of character similar to Lord Orville • False Delicacy- e.g. Elinor telling lies to be polite in society in Sense and Sensibility. Evelina here has an eagerness to please that is extreme- for example, how she suddenly “flys” from Lord Orville when her guardian suggests he may not do right by her

8. Concluding Thoughts • Is Evelina also a comment on the marriage market- it is praised after all into it’s insight into the experience of women. It has been called: “the first novel to examine seriously, through a woman’s eyes, the effects of the usages of the time upon the position and life of a woman”(Steeves Harrison) • Appearances and Reality- the prostitutes Evelina accidentally stumbles upon who she mistakes for “fine ladies”. All of Evelina’s world view comments are to do with this duality between appearance and reality • The first readers of Evelina felt they were being let in on secrets- of the courtship ritual and the female heart which had never been so revealed before. Such a representation in a novel changed perceptions and to an extent practice. Therefore, the novel, originally published anonymously had a social impact