Evelina: or, The History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World

Originally published in 1778, Evelina is Frances Burney's first and most beloved novel. It was a landmark in the development of the novel of manners and went on to influence such enduringly popular authors as Jane Austen.

By turns hilarious and grim, witty and lyrical, the story follows young Evelina as she leaves the seclusion of her country home and enters into late eighteenth-century London society-both its pleasures and its dangers. Life in eighteenth-century England is vividly rendered ...