Old school chick lit

I've lately been neglecting my book lists (taking a break from World Without End and Milk Glass Moon).  But that doesn't mean I haven't been reading at all.  Recently I decided to re-read a favorite, Evelina by Fanny Burney, and finished it quicker than I expected.  Six and 1/2 years after I first read it for my undergrad classic literature class, it still holds up and - even better - offers up new perspectives of the story and its unassuming heroine.  I don't normally like to post reviews on books I'm re-reading, but in my dedication to recording my thoughts about the stuff I read, it feels right to write a little about it.  My original review of Evelina is here, in all its creaky splendor, and I'll be drawing heavily from it now.

Evelina is a sweet, gentle young woman whose birth father will not accept her into his family.  She lives with the kindly Rev. Villars, her dead mother's close friend.  She leaves her quiet home in the country to go to London with her friend's family, and immediately starts making one terrible faux pas after another.  She meets a huge and expansive cast of characters: the foppish Mr. Lovel, the overly gallant Sir Clement, her uppity French grandmother who tries too hard at being a MILF, and the steadfast, always sincere Lord Orville.  She also meets a poor, tragic young man who has an important, tragic connection to her birth father.  Because of her remarkable beauty and the fact that Mr. Villars cannot be with her, Evelina is considered fair game for the eligible bachelors around town.  But she only admires Lord Orville, who is willing to overlook the other mistakes she makes (due mostly to her naivate and trusting nature).  After her grandmother casts her off, Evelina makes a final, crucial step in convincing her real father that she is his true daughter - as well as trying to figure out which of her would-be suitors she can trust.


Frankly, this book reads like someone turned Pride and Prejudice into a soap opera - but a well-written soap opera with memorable characters.  Evelina's extreme shyness might be annoying for some, but ultimately she redeems herself.  You have to understand that not only is she seeking her birth father, but at least four men try to put the moves on her throughout the book - and it's obvious that not all of them have marriage on their minds.  The rakish Sir Clement takes many extreme liberties with Evelina by taking advantage of her helplessness.  The overeager Mr. Smith is equally self-assured as he insinuates that Evelina couldn't do better than him.  Lord Merton, despite being engaged (to Orville's little sister), professes undying love to Evelina whenever they're alone together.  Even her low-class cousin Braughton thinks he's perfectly entitled to marry her, and it's just a matter of time.  It's all kinds of wrong, used mainly to underline Evelina's extreme vulnerability as an orphaned young woman with no one to protect her.


Because of the high emotional stakes and broadly drawn characters, the story of Evelina strikes many readers as unrealistic.  Any scene with Mr. MacCartney (an angst-ridden, brooding young man with the aforementioned tie to Evelina's father) or either of her birth parents is incredibly soap opera-like in tone.  But I noticed, this time around, the satirical edge in Evelina's observations about the superficiality of London society.  The same broad sketch Burney makes of the characters and plotline is also used to point out the pretention of the upper class and the vulgarity of the lower.  Two characters comment on this more directly: the uncouth Captain Mirivan and the sarcastic Mrs. Selwyn.  These are two characters that Evelina passively dislikes, as the captain is overbearing and mean-spirited and the gentlewoman is sharp-tongued and aggressive.  But there is no doubt that modern readers will feel right at home with their attitudes and ideas.  A later scene involving - I'm not kidding - a wild animal set loose by the captain will definitely have you laughing with him.


It takes a while to kick in, but the romance between Lord Orville and Evelina is pretty satisfying.  Although not the most dashing character, Orville wears his heart on his sleeve, and one large speech he has toward the end is especially gratifying for the reader after all Evelina has been through.  There is really no rival for him, but Sir Clement's aggressive flirting will have readers demanding for a restraining order; even so, his grand speech and ability to twist Evelina's words make for some engrossing dialogue.


The overall story is Evelina trying to find out where she belongs - she is exposed to several different social spheres, none of them written in a positive light.  That's why the story is relevant today: Nobody wants to feel like an outcast, even if they dislike the society they must join. Rating: (same as before) 4.5 London scandals out of 5.