Evelina

Or, the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World

By: Frances Burney

Narrated by: Orson Scott Card, Emily Rankin, Stefan Rudnicki, Gabrielle de Cuir

Length: 18 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

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 as Evelina is educated in the ways of the world and, eventually, love. As she battles such cruelties as social snobbery and delights in such thrills as pleasure gardens and balls, Evelina strives toward her final triumph, while capturing the hearts of listeners everywhere along the way.

Public Domain (P)2014 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

An entertaining listen

Though this novel was written in 1778, it feels fresh in its observations and language. The characters are fairly well-drawn--though with the limitation of the narrators being the letter writers, there are some motivations and characters that are left with shallow outlines. Some of the characters and events also seemed superfluous--though that is also common in Dickens, Gaskell, and Trollope--but it made me appreciate how tightly written Jane Austen's novels are. I enjoyed the narration, though at times it tended toward the melodramatic--though at somewhat melodramatic moments! Orson Scott Card's afterword also seems superfluous--I didn't find that it added anything to listening to the novel--and he needs to read Lady Susan if he thinks Jane Austen utterly rejected the epistolary form.

A hidden gem

If you like Jane Austen, then Evelina is a must! It is an engaging story and I could hardly pause the story for anything. Highly recommend!

Satisfactory, a solid B

Appreciated there being multiple narrators and the main woman does a good job portraying different voices, etc. However I do wish everyone had an English accent (or Scottish where it pertains), as it would have felt more authentic.

American Narrator...but don't let that stop you

I get that the venerable Orson Scott Card loves this book so much that he selected the narrators (and bought the rights...?) but an American woman is a poor choice to voice an English girl. That being said, I found the story itself so charming and the narration otherwise so faultless that it was easy for me to sink into the book. May be harder for a British reader, however, to get over the very English story voiced by an American.

Lovely story loved by Jane Austen

Fascinating look at English women of the late 1700s, written in letters, mostly from a naive young woman, raised by an English country parson, but, of course, the true daughter of a wronged English woman and a French aristocrat who denies her birthright.

Immersive reading

The readers were amazing, and I was so impressed with the amount of expression and accuracy to the characters. Truly excellent

American accent

Great book when known to the history of it.
Next time please choose British native performers. The American accent was out of place.

Off to read the rest of Fanny Burney’s works

This is the type of underrated classic we need to make viral!

P.S. I loved Orson Scott Card’s Afterword (he is the author of Ender’s Game, for those who aren’t aware)

Jane Austen's favorite book!

If you're a Jane Austen fan than you MUST read Evalina by Frances Burney (1778), which Jane declared to be her favorite book. In fact Burney is the creator of the sort of social commentary, particularly of women teetering on the edge of the British upper classes for whom a good marriage or a source of their own money was imperative. Just like Austen, this book is VERY funny (in fact funnier and good bit sillier... but, I STRONGLY recommend it, and the book totally holds value 200+ years later (in fact it feels more modern than Austen in spite of being older), so I seriously wonder why it was never assigned to me in a literature class -- especially considering the author was a woman! (One of my best friends who I've been telling about the book was a literature major and she's scratching her head about that too, as she'd never heard of it.) That said, while it's pretty clear that Austen's Pride and prejudice (1813) was influenced by this book -- you hear echos of it throughout, although this story crosses the line into soap opera and has some of the laugh out loud silliness later seen in Oscar Wilde's "The importance of being Earnest" (1895). The titular character is beyond bland and its doubtful her story would be interesting except for she's suppose to be quite the stunner and men fall over themselves as a result (I think that's part of the author's point in terms of how society values women) but is surrounded by some amazing characters. I "listened" to the audiobook version of this, the performances were wonderful.

Impressive!

I'm in awe of this book~ keeping in mind that it was published in 1778! It's proof that while times change, fashions change, human nature has always been the same no matter what century we are destined to live. Written in the epistolary form, it does not detract as Evelina so dramatizes her letters to her beloved guardian that they are quite exciting. It's as though you are there with her and the letters incorporate the voices of the characters the letters include. Though she is an innocent victim of circumstances and so many people seek to demean and take advantage of her she is unaware and remains intact and unaffected to the end. There are no harsh depressing situations that make some books too depressing to read. She has such a kind, ignorance of evil that would devil a more jaded person, simply bypass her understanding. The book is overly long and some parts could be left out if it were to be strictly edited such as in the last few chapters the part with the monkey and some other trials with Willoughby. All in all, this is a delightful tale and please stay with it since it gets better and better as the chapters go by. The performance was at first a drone but as it progressed got better and better and very entertaining. I love the references to the places of the times, Vauxhall, Drury Lane, and Covent Gardens, etc. described by someone who actually lived during the times. There is a trip to Bath, attendance at balls, house parties, and rides in the park. I love to read descriptions of these venues through the eyes of an author alive at the time. Frances Burney was a favorite author of Jane Austen and Evelina her favorite book. The grammar and abundance of descriptive, sometimes obscure words is a delight. I do wish we had a larger vocabulary today and that slang was not so pervasive in our language. What a treat to read/hear dialogue without slang or profanity.