Well, you can certainly tell Jane Austen was a fan.

Loved. Clever observations of society and character formation. Also, biting commentary on narrow minded nationalism and ethnocentrism. I fell in love with Evelina.

Fantastic Read!!

An interesting coming of age story. I'm glad I'm through with it though. Evelina is insufferably proper and demur.

finally finishing this on the day that I handed the last ren-rev essay in is truly such a relief

Long but worth it

Je voulais lire Fanny Burney, Jane Austen se déclarant une de ses admiratrices.
Bon il y a des longueurs, surtout avec les aventures burlesques du Capitaine Marvin et Mme Duval, le débat sur les manières des français vs des anglais, et le comportement lourd des prétendants d'Evelina (surtout Sir Clement) qui ne veulent décidément pas la lâcher.
Mais sinon la plume est assez dynamique et amusante. Le format épistolaire permet de rentrer dans la tête de l'héroïne (qui conserve tout de même une certaine pudeur car elle écrit à son père adoptif).
Les éléments dramatiques ne manquent pas. La mère de l'héroïne meurt en couche et son père refuse de la reconnaître (mais en fait c'était parce qu'il avait été trompé et avait recueilli un autre bébé à la place de l'héroïne, celui de la nourrice). Encore mieux, l'héroïne sauve du suicide un pauvre homme dont l'histoire se rapprochait un peu trop de celle d'Œdipe (il tombe amoureux d'une fille qu'il découvre être sa sœur et blesse son propre père) mais tout est bien qui finit bien puisqu'il s'avère qu'Evelina est sa vraie sœur et la femme qu'il aime la "fausse" héroïne.
Sinon le héros Lord Orville montre of course comment être l'homme idéal et se comporter avec bonnes manières. Vu comment l'autrice écrit les autres personnages masculins, qui sont soit des gros beaufs, des coquets ou des pervers mal intentionnés, elle avait des comptes à régler avec la gente masculine de son temps.

Jane Austen may have read and been inspired by this book, but I'm really hoping she didn't like it. I found this book almost painfully dull, and Evelina herself so annoying I wanted to slap her. Sometimes it felt like I was reading a poorly done fanfiction or even YA novel in that she didn't seem to understand how all these men kept falling in love with her. I know her character's purpose is to be naive, especially at the start before London society starts to refine her, but there has to be a better way to do it than that. I also failed to see how any of her musings were a social commentary of the time as the blurb at the back of the book said. There were a few parts that did interest me--the reveal of Sir Belmont's true nature, for instance, and all that Evelina's infancy entailed--but not enough to redeem the book as a whole. I'm interested to see how discussion of this book in English class will go--assuming anyone besides me got through it, of course.

Oh, the folly of modesty and reserve; how much confusion is caused falsely in thy name?

I absolutely love this book! I can't believe I've only just discovered it.
It is one of the first romance novels, so do beware of ye olde language. But you do get used to it.

I found it amusing at how much chaos was caused by Evelina's purity and innocence.
How short this novel would have been if she lived today and was at once able to speak her mind!
But this is what makes the book so lovely.

There is absolutely no requirement for sex in this romance. I blush at even associating such an act with this work of refinement!

Evelina goes to balls and gatherings of all sorts, and her eyes are opened to the horrors and wonders of this world.

Every romance reader (or indeed author) should read this book.
I feel myself greatly affected by its contents. And I thank and honour Fanny for her bravery as it muct have taken great courage to write this way at the time. And in so doing she had paved the way for many romance novels ever since.

Incidentally, in today's terms one J Austen 'crowd funded' this book's publication (before she herself was published).
Oh, how much do we owe to this book?

I really enjoyed Evelina as a character! Genuinely #relatable with her earnest social awkwardness, but also endearing. An interesting contrast to Pamela, actually. I did not enjoy the interminable Captain Mirvin sequences, though they did make me think of Simon Dickie's work on cruelty & humour in the 18thC; I can only assume he was meant as comic relief...? The plot took a while to pick up but did manage to have a few interesting turns at the end. Overall I'm very glad to have finally read some of Burney's work!

read until end of vol 2