Evelina, the first and best of Fanny Burney’s novels, tells the story of a young girl, fresh from the provinces, whose initiation into the ways of the world is frequently painful, though it leads to self-discovery, moral growth, and, finally, happiness. Hilarious comedy and moral gravity make the novel a fund of entertainment and wisdom. Out of the graceful shifts from the idyllic to the near-tragic and realistic, Evalina emerges as a fully realized character. And out of its treatment of contrasts the peace of the countryside and the cultured and social excitement of London and Bristol, the crowd of life-like vulgarians and elegant gentry the novel reveals superbly the life and temper of eighteenth-century England, as seen though the curiosity of its young heroine.Edward A. Bloom has edited the text from the rare first edition of 1778 [from the copy in the Bodleian Library of Oxford University].