Fanny Burney published her first work, Evelina, anonymously, basing it on a piece of juvenilia titled The History of Caroline Evelyn, which she had destroyed on the advice of her stepmother. As an account of the unhappy life of Evelina’s mother, it served as a prequel of sorts to Burney’s later first novel. Due to her father’s reputation as a musicologist, Burney matured surrounded by artists who gathered in their home. Because her stepmother believed novel writing too frivolous an activity for a well-bred young woman, Burney began a journal that extended into multiple volumes. Her prolific practice of dialogue and description nurtured her strength as a fiction writer, as did her ardent attendance of plays. Still bowing to her stepmother’s opinion regarding novelists, she took elaborate steps to guarantee that no reader could identify her as the author of Evelina (1778).

The novel’s instant popularity assured her she had found her calling, as did positive critical reception, including that of Samuel Johnson (1709–84), who remarked that the book contained passages that “might do honour to [Samuel] Richardson.” The celebrity she enjoyed after revealing herself as the author earned Burney a Keeper of the Robes position to Queen Caroline. In the later The Memoirs of Dr. Burney, she wrote that she had written the book for her “private recreation” as “a frolic.” She acknowledges in her preface a debt to Johnson, along with Jacques Rousseau, Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding, and Tobias Smollett.

Burney adopted the epistolary novel technique made famous by Richardson to tell her story, opening the novel with an exchange between Lady Howard and her friend, the Reverend Mr. Villars. Those letters supply exposition to the plot and summarize The History of Caroline Evelyn. Mr. Villars had once tutored and grown close to Mr. Evelyn, a wealthy young man who married beneath himself to a barmaid, their union producing one daughter, Caroline. Just before Mr. Evelyn’s death and two years into his marriage, he requested that Villars look after Caroline. He expected that his wife would pass on his fortune to the girl. However, conflict later arose between the girl and her mother when, remarried to a Frenchman named Duval, the then Madame Duval tried to force Caroline to marry a man she rejected. Caroline escaped the arranged marriage by secretly marrying Sir John Belmont, a fortune seeker. When he learned that Caroline had no money of her own, he subsequently burned their marriage license and declared himself single, although Caroline carried their child. She returned to Villars’s care, gave birth to Evelina, and died. Villars raised Evelina, educating her as he had her grandfather and her mother.

Madame Duval enters their lives, enquiring about her granddaughter, and Villars maintains Evelina’s secrecy in the country, hoping to protect her from her grandmother’s negative influence and the influence of society. After a time, however, he permits Evelina to see London in the company of Lady Howard and her married daughter. At 17, the naive Evelina becomes enraptured with the city’s swirling society life. She falls in love with Lord Orville while fending off the attentions of Sir Clement Willoughby. She innocently offends the social fop Mr. Lovel, inadvertently gaining an enemy. Tensions rise as Madame Duval locates her granddaughter in London and argues for Evelina to return with her to France. Evelina takes offense at her grandmother’s nephew, Mr. Branghton, and his family of tradespeople, whom she finds vulgar, emphasizing the theme of class structure. Their continuous intrusion into her life, along with problems caused by Sir Clement and Mr. Lovel, leave Evelina “pained” and no longer enthralled with London’s social scene. She comments on one member of the group, Mr. Smith, that “his vivacity is so low-bred, and his whole behaviour so forward and disagreeable, that I should prefer the company of dullness itself, even as that goddess is described by Pope, to that of this sprightly young man.” He stands in contrast to Lord Orville, about whom Evelina states, “the politeness, the sweetness, with which he speaks to me, restore all my natural cheerfulness.” Lord Orville subsequently neutralizes Mr. Lovel so he no longer bothers her. Evelina’s grandmother further complicates conditions by planning to force Sir John Belmont to recognize Evelina as his daughter and heir. Villars counters by suggesting that Lady Howard contact Sir John. When she does, Sir John responds that he wants to meet with her in England.

While Villars agrees to Evelina spending time with Madame Duval in London, he forbids travel to France. He hopes that Evelina may inherit some of the fortune due to her from her grandfather. The Branghtons, who hope to inherit Madame Duval’s fortune themselves, force Evelina into embarrassing situations that she finds herself having to explain to Lord Orville in a letter. Having returned home to Villars, she receives a curt reply from Orville that shocks her into illness. As she recuperates at a Bristol spa, she meets Orville, who shows no signs of the hostile attitude evident in his letter. Evelina eventually discovers that Lord Orville did not receive her letter, which had been intercepted by Sir Clement Willoughby, who had written the nasty reply. His ruse discovered, Willoughby departs, and Lord Orville declares his love for Evelina.

Before any plans for a wedding can develop, Sir John Belmont arrives in London declaring a young woman with him his daughter and Evelina a fraud. This further complication is explained by the fact that Caroline’s nurse had swapped her own child with Evelina, hoping for a better life for her daughter. Sir John must then recognize Evelina as his daughter and heir, and her happy union with Sir Clement proceeds. She writes to Villars of Lord Orville’s declaration, “and, pressing my hand affectionately to his heart, ‘you are now,’ said he, in a low voice, ‘all my own! Oh, my Evelina, how will my soul find room for its happiness?—it seems already bursting!’ I could make no reply, indeed I hardly spoke another word the rest of the evening; so little talkative is the fullness of contentment.”

Critics remark on Burney’s narrative skill in preserving the excitement of her lengthy plot. The narration through Evelina’s point of view rings true, as Burney draws on her own experiences. Some compare Villars to Oliver Goldsmith’s (ca. 1730–74) protagonist from The Vicar of Wakefield (1766), while Burney bases Lord Orville on one of Richardson’s characters. In addition, her comic social scenes reflect influence by Fielding, and the combination of influences results in what some labeled the first novel of manners, anticipating the work of Jane Austen (1775–1817). The book remains available in print as well as electronic text.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Phelps, Gilbert. “Frances Burney: Evelina, or the History of a Young Lady’s First Entrance into the World.” An Introduction to Fifty British Novels: 1600–1900. London: Pan Books, 1979, 145–150.

Categories: British Literature, Literature, Novel Analysis

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