Evelina

The first great novel by a woman, and still startling in its wit and compassion. Fanny Burney wrote Evelina at twenty-five, and it crackles with the energy of a young writer who knew exactly how ridiculous, and how dangerous, high society could be for a woman with no money, no family name, and no protector. We follow our heroine from the rural cottage where she was raised in innocent seclusion into the glittering, venomous world of London and Bath. Her illegitimacy shadows her every step, yet through a series of mortifying and hilarious encounters, with vulgar relations, predatory lords, and the absurd rituals of the ton, she finds her voice. This is comedy of manners at its sharpest, but also a novel about how much a woman had to risk to secure her place in the world. Burney sees through every pretense and pities every victim of social cruelty. She invented the form that Jane Austen would later perfect.