A story of initiation into the ways of the world for a young, provincial girl, Evelina is both richly comic and gravely moral. It is at once a guide to fashionable London, a satirical attack on the new consumerism, an investigation of women's position in the late eighteeenth century, and a love story. The new introduction and full notes to this edition make this richness all the more readily available to a modern reader.
EVELINA TELLS THE STORY OF A YOUNG GIRL, FRESH FROM THE PROVINCES, WHOSE INITIATION INTO THE WAYS OF THE WORLD IS FREQUENTLY PAINFUL, THOUGH IT LEADS TO SELF-DISCOVERY, MORAL GROWTH, AND FINALLY, HAPPINESS. THIS NOVEL REVEALS SUPERBLY THE LIFE AND TEMPER OF EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLAND, AS SEEN THROUGH THE CURIOSITY OF IT YOUNG HEROINE.
