Evelina, or, the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World is an epistolary novel by Fanny Burney. It follows a young woman's introduction to fashionable London society and the manners, expectations, and social codes she encounters. It is worth listening to for its lively satire and careful observation of eighteenth-century life.
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Text source: gutenberg.org · The work is in the public domain.
Opening of the book
EVELINA or THE HISTORY OF A YOUNG LADY’S ENTRANCE INTO THE WORLD 1778 By Fanny Burney ORIGINAL INSCRIPTION: TO DR. BURNEY
Oh, Author of my being!-far more dear To me than light, than nourishment, or rest, Hygeia’s blessings, Rapture’s burning tear, Or the life-blood that mantles in my breast! If in my heart the love of Virtue glows, ’T was planted there by an unerring rule; From thy example the pure flame arose, Thy life, my precept,-thy good works, my school. Could my weak pow’rs thy num’rous virtues trace, By filial love each fear should be repress’d, The blush of Incapacity I’d chace, And stand, Recorder of thy worth, confess’d: But since my niggard stars that gift refuse, Concealment is the only boon I claim; Obscure be still the unsuccessful Muse, Who cannot raise, but would not sink, thy fame. Oh! of my life at once the source and joy! If e’er thy eyes these feeble lines survey, Let not their folly their intent destroy; Accept the tribute-but forget the lay. CONTENTS
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