Fanny Burney

Evelina Fanny Burney

Evelina or the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World is a novel written by English author Frances Burney and first published in 1778. This edition includes illustrations by Hugh Thomson. Evelina is the unacknowledged but legitimate daughter of a dissipated English aristocrat, thus raised in rural seclusion until her 17th year. Through a series of humorous events that take place in London and the resort town of Hotwells, near Bristol, Evelina learns to navigate the complex layers of 18th-century society and earn the love of a distinguished nobleman. This sentimental novel, which has notions of sensibility and early romanticism, satirizes the society in which it is set and is a significant precursor to the work of Jane Austen and Maria Edgeworth, whose novels explore many of the same issues. Frances Burney (1752-1840), also known as Fanny Burney and after her marriage as Madame d'Arblay, was an English novelist, diarist and playwright.