BOOK: Evelina by Frances Burney (1778)


As I am a huge Jane Austen fan, I decided to look at some of the female-authored literature that influenced her writing. The first novel I came across was Evelina. Like the well-known Austen plot of a parentless young girl negotiating her way into the wider world of adulthood, Burney's novel follows Evelina as she leave her secluded country life for the cunning and manipulative world of eighteenth-century London society. Austen obviously drew great inspiration from Burney's host of amusing, despicable and/or outlandish characters, but she toned down  Burney's burlesque style, using a subtler, more subversive voice to critique her society. Although Burney's novel lacks the polish and sparkle of an Austen novel, it is well worth reading for its comic characters, interesting plot turns and compelling narrative voice.  Of course the ending is predictable and like Austen, it pairs everyone off neatly and succinctly, but that is not without revealing the many dangers and difficulties for young women in a patriarchal society along the way. Although the beautiful Evelina appears to have every eligible bachelor falling at her feet, she is coerced from all angles into following other peoples desires for her future.The claustrophobia of Evelina's position highlights the lack of autonomy for women in the eighteenth-century and the worth Burney invested in her female character's morals and perception, signalled the beginning of a female writing tradition that attempted to subtly elevate the moral status and intelligence of women to that their male counterparts, through literature. An important novel for anyone interested in Austen or in a female writing tradition, it offers an interesting portrayal of eighteenth-century society from a female perspective.