Evelina

Published anonymously in 1778, Fanny Burney’s first novel follows a young heroine of uncertain birth as she steps into fashionable London society. Told entirely through letters, it charts Evelina Anville, raised quietly in the country, as she stumbles through balls, awkward suitors, vulgar relatives, and the snobbery of the town. Her missteps are comic and her judgments sharp, but her situation, an unacknowledged daughter with no fortune, gives the humor real stakes. Burney’s ear for social absurdity and her heroine’s fresh voice made the book a phenomenon and won admirers from Samuel Johnson to the young Jane Austen, who learned from it. This free PDF and EPUB edition offers one of the founding comedies of English manners.