Our book club read Evelina by Frances Burney a few years ago. I enjoyed It. It’s an Epistolary novel which is not everyone’s cup of tea but i’ve always enjoyed reading other peoples mail! ?
Actually the life of Frances Burney is probably even more interesting than her books. She also published her diaries which are quite extraordinary. She had quite a life!
The other thing I just remembered about Evelina that I really liked was it was a contemporary novel for its time which was the late 1700’s. You really could get a feel of what life in England was like. Many interesting tidbits that I was always looking up online to get more details. Loved hearing about the pleasure Gardens. A lot of the novel takes place in these gardens in London.
I moderate a Jane Austen book club. We read thru all her books every five years. After going through the missive for our second time… We decided to do a “what did Jane read?” Thus we read Evelina and went on to read The Romance of the Forest by Ann Radcliffe. You can really see the influences of these books on Jane Austen.
Our book club read Evelina by Frances Burney a few years ago. I enjoyed It. It’s an Epistolary novel which is not everyone’s cup of tea but i’ve always enjoyed reading other peoples mail! ?
Actually the life of Frances Burney is probably even more interesting than her books. She also published her diaries which are quite extraordinary. She had quite a life!
Thanks for that information Lynne. I’ll have to see if I can find those.
The other thing I just remembered about Evelina that I really liked was it was a contemporary novel for its time which was the late 1700’s. You really could get a feel of what life in England was like. Many interesting tidbits that I was always looking up online to get more details. Loved hearing about the pleasure Gardens. A lot of the novel takes place in these gardens in London.
I’m definitely going to get it. You’ve made my mind up for me, lol.
I moderate a Jane Austen book club. We read thru all her books every five years. After going through the missive for our second time… We decided to do a “what did Jane read?” Thus we read Evelina and went on to read The Romance of the Forest by Ann Radcliffe. You can really see the influences of these books on Jane Austen.
I read the book off of iBooks and if I’m remembering correctly the diaries were also included as an appendix in the book.
That’s a great idea.