Editing Frances Burney (section)

=== Critical reception ===
Written in [[Epistolary novel|epistolary]] form just as this was reaching its height of popularity, ''Evelina'' portrays the English upper middle class through a 17-year-old woman who has reached marriageable age. It was a [[Bildungsroman]] ahead of its time. ''Evelina'' pushed boundaries, for female protagonists were still "relatively rare" in that genre.<ref name="foo-bar">Doody, p. 45.</ref> Comic and witty, it is ultimately a satire of the oppressive masculine values that shaped a young woman's life in the 18th century, and of other forms of social hypocrisy.<ref name="Commire, Klezmer 228" /> ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'' calls it a "landmark in the development of the novel of manners".<ref name="Encyclopædia Britannica 450" />

In choosing to narrate the novel through letters written by the protagonist, Burney made use of her own writing experience. This course has won praise from critics past and present, for the direct access it provides to events and characters, and the narrative sophistication it demonstrates in linking the roles of narrator and heroine.<ref name="Commire, Klezmer 229"/> The authors of ''Women in World History'' argue that she identifies difficulties faced by women in the 18th century, especially those on questions of romance and marriage.<ref name="Commire, Klezmer 229"/> She is seen as a "shrewd observer of her times and a clever recorder of its charms and its follies". What critics have consistently found interesting in her writing is the introduction and careful treatment of a female protagonist, complete with character flaws, "who must make her way in a hostile world." These are recognisable also as features of Jane Austen's writing, and show Burney's influence on her work.<ref name="Commire, Klezmer 228"/> Furthermore, she sought to put to use the epistolary form espoused periodically by Burney, as seen in ''[[Lady Susan]]'' and to a lesser extent ''[[Pride and Prejudice]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://scholarship.richmond.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1256&context=masters-theses |title=Jane Austen's use of the epistolary method |last=Bender |first=Barbara Tavss |access-date=5 April 2017}}</ref>

As a testament to its popularity, the novel went through four immediate editions. In 1971, ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' stated of ''Evelina'': "Addressed to the young, the novel has a quality perennially young."<ref name="Encyclopædia Britannica 451"/>