Evelina: Or the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World / Edition 1

by Frances Burney

Overview

A work by turns hilarious and grim, Evelina tells the story of a young woman’s education in the ways of the world, vividly rendering life in eighteenth-century England. Raised by a pastor after her mother died and her father abandoned her, Evelina leaves the seclusion of the country for her first season out, encounters all manner of people–from prospective husbands to rakes to vulgar relatives–and endures all manner of trials before she achieves her final triumph.

“Before Evelina,” W. D. Howells proclaimed, “the heart of girlhood had never been so fully opened in literature.” Samuel Johnson called Burney “a real wonder” and Thomas Babington Macaulay wrote, “We owe to [Burney], not only Evelina, Cecilia, and Camilla, but also Mansfield Park and The Absentee.”

Product Details

ISBN-13:	2901551112373
Publication date:	09/14/2000
Pages:	704
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.06(d)

About the Author

Susan Kubica Howard is an associate professor of English at Duquesne University, and the editor of Charlotte Lennox’s The Life of Harriet Stuart, Written by Herself (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1995).

Read an Excerpt

Volume I

Oh author of my being!-far more dear
To me than light, than nourishment, or rest,
Hygieia’s blessings, Rapture’s burning tear,
Or the life blood that mantles in my breast!

If in my heart the love of Virtue glows,
’T was planted there by an unerring rule;
From thy example the pure flame arose,
Thy life, my precept-thy good works, my school.

Could my weak pow’rs thy num’rous virtues trace,
By filial love each fear should be repress’d;
The blush of Incapacity I’d chace,
And stand, recorder of thy worth, confess’d:

But since my niggard stars that gift refuse,
Concealment is the only boon I claim;
Obscure be still the unsuccessful Muse,
Who cannot raise, but would not sink, thy fame.

Oh! of my life at once the source and joy!
If e’er thy eyes these feeble lines survey,
Let not their folly their intent destroy;
Accept the tribute-but forget the lay.


To the Authors of the Monthly and Critical Reviews
Gentlemen,
The liberty which I take in addressing to You the trifling production of a few idle hours, will, doubtless, move your wonder, and, probably, your contempt. I will not, however, with the futility of apologies, intrude upon your time, but briefly acknowledge the motives of my temerity: lest, by a premature exercise of that patience which I hope will befriend me, I should lessen its benevolence, and be accessary to my own condemnation.

Without name, without recommendation, and unknown alike to success and disgrace, to whom can I so properly apply for patronage, as to those whopublicly profess themselves Inspectors of all literary performances?

The extensive plan of your critical observations,-which, not confined to works of utility or ingenuity, is equally open to those of frivolous amusement,-and yet worse than frivolous dullness,-encourages me to seek for your protection, since,-perhaps for my sins!-it entitles me to your annotations. To resent, therefore, this offering, however insignificant, would ill become the universality of your undertaking, though not to despise it may, alas! be out of your power.

The language of adulation, and the incense of flattery, though the natural inheritance, and constant resource, from time immemorial, of the Dedicator, to me offer nothing but the wistful regret that I dare not invoke their aid. Sinister views would be imputed to all I could say; since, thus situated, to extol your judgement, would seem the effect of art, and to celebrate your impartiality, be attributed to suspecting it.

As Magistrates of the press, and Censors for the public,-to which you are bound by the sacred ties of integrity to exert the most spirited impartiality, and to which your suffrages should carry the marks of pure, dauntless, irrefragable truth-to appeal for your MERCY, were to solicit your dishonour; and therefore,-though ’tis sweeter than frankincense,-more grateful to the senses than all the odorous perfumes of Arabia,-and though It droppeth like the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath, I court it not! to your justice alone I am entitled, and by that I must abide. Your engagements are not to the supplicating author, but to the candid public, which will not fail to crave
The penalty and forfeit of your bond.

No hackneyed writer, inured to abuse, and callous to criticism, here braves your severity;-neither does a half-starv’d garretteer, Oblig’d by hunger-and request of friends,-implore your lenity: your examination will be alike unbiassed by partiality and prejudice:-no refractory murmuring will follow your censure, no private interest be gratified by your praise.

Let not the anxious solicitude with which I recommend myself to your notice, expose me to your derision. Remember, Gentlemen, you were all young writers once, and the most experienced veteran of your corps, may, by recollecting his first publication, renovate his first terrors, and learn to allow for mine. For, though Courage is one of the noblest virtues of this nether sphere, and, though scarcely more requisite in the field of battle, to guard the fighting hero from disgrace, than in the private commerce of the world, to ward off that littleness of soul which leads, by steps imperceptible, to all the base train of the inferior passions, and by which the too timid mind is betrayed into a servility derogatory to the dignity of human nature; yet is it a virtue of no necessity in a situation such as mine; a situation which removes, even from cowardice itself, the sting of
ignominy;-for surely that courage may easily be dispensed with, which would rather excite disgust than admiration! Indeed, it is the peculiar privilege of an author, to rob terror of contempt, and pusillanimity of reproach.

Here let me rest,-and snatch myself, while I yet am able, from the fascination of Egotism,-a monster who has more votaries than ever did homage to the most popular deity of antiquity; and whose singular quality is, that while he excites a blind and involuntary adoration in almost every individual, his influence is universally disallowed, his power universally contemned, and his worship, even by his followers, never mentioned but with abhorrence.

In addressing you jointly, I mean but to mark the generous sentiments by which liberal criticism, to the utter annihilation of envy, jealousy, and all selfish views, ought to be distinguished.

Copyright 2001 by Frances Burney Introduction by Elizabeth Kowaleski Wallace

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Frances Burney: A Brief Chronology
A Note on the Text

Evelina

Introduction to Appendices

Appendix A: Contemporary Reviews

1. London Review (February 1778)
2. Monthly Review (April 1778)
3. Westminster Magazine (June 1778)
4. Gentleman’s Magazine (September
5. Critical Review (September 1778)

Appendix B: Works on Family

1. George Savile, Marquis of Halifax, The Lady’s New-Year’s-Gift
2. William Fleetwood, The Relative Duties of Parents and Children, Husbands and Wives. Masters and Servants
3. Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, “Correspondence with her Granddaughter, Diana, Duchess of Bedford, 1732-35”
4. Samuel Richardson, Letters Written To and For Particular Friends, on the Most Important Occasions
5. [John Hill], On the Management and Education of Children
6. Samuel Richardson, A Collection of the Moral and Instructive Sentiments, Maxims, Cautions, and Reflexions, Contained in the Histories of PAMELA, CLARISSA, and SIR CHARLES GRANDISON
7. James Nelson, An Essay on the Government of Children
8. Eliza Haywood, The Female Spectator
9. Lady Sarah Pennington, An Unfortunate Mother’s Advice to Her Absent Daughters
10. “Portia” [pseud.], The Polite Lady
11. Hester Mulso Chapone, Letters on the Improvement of the Mind
12. Clara Reeve, Plans of Education
13. Mrs. Bonhote, The Parental Monitor
14. Thomas Gisborne, An Enquiry into the Duties of the Female Sex
15. Maria Edgeworth and Richard Lovell Edgeworth, Practical Education
16. Francis Burney D’Arblay, Memoirs of Doctor Burney

Appendix C: Works on Comedy

1. Anon., Pasquil’s Jests, Mixed with Mother Bunches Merriments
2. Joseph Addison, The Spectator
3. Anon., Scoggin’s Jests
4. [John Mottley], Joe Miller’s Jest Book
5. [Corbyn Morris], An Essay Towards Fixing the True Standards of Wit, Humour, Raillery, Satire, and Ridicule
6. Eliza Haywood, The Female Spectator
7. Jane Collier, An Essay on the Art of Ingeniously Tormenting
8. Christopher Anstey, The New Bath Guide
9. [James Quin], Quin’s Jests
10. Anon., An Essay on Laughter
11. William Hazlitt, Lectures on the English Comic Writers

Select Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

Longtime admirers of Frances Burney’s delightful eighteenth-century comedy of manners, Evelina, will no doubt rejoice in Broadview’s impressive new edition of the work, here ably introduced and annotated by Susan Kubica Howard. Readers new to the novel have a treat in store. Evelina remains, quite simply, the most accomplished and insouciant comic novel written by an Englishwoman before Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, and coruscates anew in the handsome presentation it is given here.” — Terry Castle, Stanford University

“Susan Kubica Howard’s research is impressively detailed, yet accessibly presented so that the edition will serve both seasoned scholars in the field and readers who may be encountering Evelina for the first time.” — Audrey Bilger, Claremont McKenna College

From the Publisher

"Susan Kubica Howard's research is impressively detailed, yet accessibly presented so that the edition will serve both seasoned scholars in the field and readers who may be encountering Evelina for the first time."

Audrey Bilger Claremont McKenna College

"Longtime admirers of Frances Burney's delightful eighteenth-century comedy of manners, Evelina, will no doubt rejoice in Broadview's impressive new edition of the work, here ably introduced and annotated by Susan Kubica Howard. Readers new to the novel have a treat in store. Evelina remains, quite simply, the most accomplished and insouciant comic novel written by an Englishwoman before Austen's Pride and Prejudice, and coruscates anew in the handsome presentation it is given here."

Terry Castle Stanford University