Evelina A Cultural Edition

This edition reprints the text of Burney's classic novel together with a broad selection of documents on life in eighteenth-century England that have been carefully chosen to put the work in its historical and cultural context. Special attention is given to eighteenth-century conduct literature, including Burney's own reactions to her society's codes of behavior for the young lady. In addition, the documents include first hand descriptions of fashionable English society at the end of the eighteenth century from observers both inside and ouside of its folds as well as materials on the often violent underside of the British trade and military expansion that helped construct the fashionable world Burney's heroine enters. A general introduction providing historical and culural background, a chronology of Burney's life and times, introductions to each thematic group of documents, headnotes, extensive annotations, a selected bibligraphy, and a generous selection of maps and illustations make this volume a definitive scholarly edition of this classic work of eighteenth-century literature.

This edition reprints the text of Burney's classic novel together with a broad selection of documents on life in eighteenth-century England that have been carefully chosen to put the work in its historical and cultural context. Special attention is given to eighteenth-century conduct literature, including Burney's own reactions to her society's codes of behavior for the young lady. In addition, the documents include first hand descriptions of fashionable English society at the end of the eighteenth century from observers both inside and ouside of its folds as well as materials on the often violent underside of the British trade and military expansion that helped construct the fashionable world Burney's heroine enters. A general introduction providing historical and culural background, a chronology of Burney's life and times, introductions to each thematic group of documents, headnotes, extensive annotations, a selected bibligraphy, and a generous selection of maps and illustations make this volume a definitive scholarly edition of this classic work of eighteenth-century literature.

  About the Series

  About This Volume

  List of Illustrations

    

PART ONE: EVELINA: THE COMPLETE TEXT

    

  Introduction: Cultural and Historical Background

    

  Chronology of Burney's Life and Times

    

  A Note on the Text

    

  Evelina, or, The History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World [First Edition, January 1778]

    

PART TWO: EVELINA: CULTURAL CONTEXTS

    

  1. The Young Lady

    For the Young Lady

       James Fordyce, "On the Importance of the Female Sex"

       Thomas Gisborne, "On the Mode of Introducing Young Women into General Society"

       Thomas Gisborne, "On the Employment of Time"

    By the Young Lady

       Frances Burney, An Unwanted Proposal of Marriage

       Frances Burney, Directions for Coughing and Sneezing before the King and Queen

    

  2. The Fashionable World

    Making Fashion

       Richard Campbell, From The London Tradesman

       Joseph Addison, On the Royal Exchange (The Spectator, No. 69)

       Joseph Addison, The Influence of French Fashions (The Spectator, No. 45)

       Oliver Goldsmith, On London Shops (From The Citizen of the World)

       Henry Fielding, People of Fashion (From The Covent-Garden Journal)

    Placing Fashion

       Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, On the London Theatre, (From The Spectator, Nos. 240, 245, and 502)

       Anonymous, From A Sketch of the Spring-Gardens, Vaux-hall

       Oliver Goldsmith, On a Visit to Vauxhall Gardens (From The Citizen of the World)

       Tobias Smollett, On a Visit to Bath (From Humphry Clinker)

       Christopher Anstey, From The New Bath Guide

    

  3. Beyond the Fashionable World

    Visitors to London

       César de Saussure, From A Foreign View of England in the Reigns of George I and George II

       W. de Archenholtz, From A Picture of England

       Carl Phillip Moritz, From Travels, Chiefly on Foot, Through Several Parts of England, in 1782

       Thomas Campbell, From Dr. Campbell's Diary of a Visit to England in 1775

    Seafaring Men

       James Anthony Gardner, Voyages of a Seaman

       Edward Boscawen, Waging War against France

       Thomas Pasley, A Voyage to the Cape of Good Hope

       Olaudah Equiano, Serving with the English Navy

    

  Selected Bibliography