Sunday, October 25, 2020

Back to the Classics Challenge 2020: Evelina


It might be a stretch to include Frances Burney’s Evelina as a “Classic about Family”, but hear me out. 

Told entirely in letters, Evelina is the story of an abandoned child who is raised by her guardian, the Reverend Villars, who was also the guardian of Evelina’s deceased mother, Caroline. When Caroline came of age, Rev. Villars, against his better judgment, allowed her to join her rich but dissolute mother, Madam Duval, in Paris. Mme Duval, in her laxity, allowed Caroline to elope with Sir John Belmont. The product of that legitimate union was Evelina. But Caroline died soon after Evelina’s birth and Sir John refused to recognize the marriage publicly. So Evelina, now 17, has been raised in the country, far from wicked London or Paris and knows little about her true parentage and no one in society knows who she is.

But that all changes when Evelina is allowed to travel to London with family friend, Mrs. Mirvan and her daughter, Maria, who is Evelina’s closest friend. In London, because she grew up so sheltered, she puts her foot wrong many times. And, coincidentally, she also runs into her grandmother, Mme Duvall, who has decidedly questionable goals for her newfound granddaughter. 

Most of the letters are from Evelina to her guardian, the Reverend Villers. Villars most naturally worried about his ward’s ability to navigate the treacherous waters of high society and remain morally upstanding. Not only is Evelina exploited by her déclassé French grandmother and her middle class London cousins, there are also the boorish Captain Mirvan and the predatory Sir Clement Willoughby to contend with. Apparently, the book was favorite of Jane Austen, so let the name “Willoughby” be a warning to you, if you have read Sense and Sensibility

Take heart, however! All is not totally dire for Evelina.  Not only does she have the support of Mrs. Mirivan and Rev. Villars, she also meets and charms the rich and handsome Lord Orville. And the complications of her parentage are eventually sorted out to her advantage. That’s my stretch: this is a book about a naïve girl with essentially no family who ultimately is recognized by her family. Ta da!

It was an interesting book to read because, thankfully, Evelina does get wiser as the plot advances and I really enjoyed the tour through London’s 18th century pleasure gardens and other entertainments depicted in the first volume. And the book really underscored just how vulnerable a woman was in this society if she had no father or brother to protect her. But, ultimately, the book is a romantic comedy that used artifice to ensure the lovers are kept apart, which isn’t my favorite thing to read from any century and the “comedy” aspect of it was often too farcical for me to appreciate.  Many of the scenes meant to be humorous, came off as mean spirited and not funny to me. How much of this is my personal taste and how much of this is changes in society over the last 200 plus years, I don’t know.

I read the Oxford World Classics paperback which was annotated, thank goodness. The florid style of dialogue was hard for me to parse at times and the explanations of what was acceptable behaviorally as a young woman in Georgian England were immensely helpful in understanding the plot. 

12 comments:

  1. This is one I definitely want to read & your discussion has made me want to read it sooner...I rather like farce, though I agree it can come across as mean-spirited. As for rom-com I'm pretty much always in favor, and if Jane Austen liked it...

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    1. Thanks for the comment reese! I found it definitely worth reading, though, as I wrote, the language was sometimes challenging. It was also fun to imagine what bits and pieces Ms. Austen might have retained and used in her own works.

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  2. Hi Ruthiella, its a book I've been thinking about reading but I am sensing that though Austen admired Evelina, Frances Burney is not in the same league as Jane Austen. But then again who is? Still these late 18th century books by women novelists are fascinating. As with Austen and Maria Edgeworth its about a young woman protecting her honor but also finding the perfect husband. There are warning signs too in the book about the fate of Evelina's mother who ran off with the wrong man.

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    1. Thanks for the comment Kathy! I agree, it is fascinating to read novels written by women that time period. I do think that Frances Burney was using the book to underscore just how precarious it was for young women at that time. None of the dangers and scrapes that Evelina gets into are her fault really...she is always manipulated by others.

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  3. I liked this book...not as much as Edgeworth's Belinda...but I enjoyed the humor in this one. And I'm kind of a fan of epistolary novels. :)

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    1. Thanks for the comment Lark! I love epistolary novels too! It is such a fun format. I will have to check out Belinda. :D

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  4. I've never read it and enjoyed your review. When I read Gaskell last summer, I also appreciated the Oxford World Classics edition, although sometimes the items the editor chose to explain were very odd, like that merci meant thank you. But I suppose even that is not obvious to many.

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    1. Thanks for the comment CLM! Yes, sometimes the notes flummox me as well. But generally I am very glad for the annotations provided in editions of classic literature.

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  5. Thanks for your review, Ruthiella. I think I’d probably enjoy this one. Hope you are well.

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    1. Thank you for the comment Carol! I think you would like this book as well. :D

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  6. As so often happens with moi, I'm afraid I'm late to the party! I enjoyed the review of a book/author about whom I know little. I'm not a big rom/com fan, but works of this period can be pretty interesting; if nothing else, they help you understand the background that gave rise to Austen; also they emphasize just how very great Austen is!

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    1. Thanks for the comment Janakay! I think this book was more interesting for me as a historical artifact than as a story. And I am pleased to know that Jane Austen and I read the same book. How amazing is that, right? :D

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