I am very fond of nineteenth century novels in general and Victorian novels in particular, but I realize that many find them turgid and we've already got a stellar nomination from that genre. So I've decided to go back a century and ahead a century with two nominations.
The first is
Evelina by Frances Burney, published in 1778, a precursor to
Pride and Prejudice.. From Amazon:
Quote:
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Frances Burney's first and most enduringly popular novel is a vivid, satirical, and seductive account of the pleasures and dangers of fashionable life in late eighteenth-century London. As she describes her heroine's entry into society, womanhood and, inevitably, love, Burney exposes the vulnerability of female innocence in an image-conscious and often cruel world where social snobbery and sexual aggression are played out in the public arenas of pleasure-gardens, theatre visits, and balls. But Evelina's innocence also makes her a shrewd commentator on the excesses and absurdities of manners and social ambitions - as well as attracting the attention of the eminently eligible Lord Orville. Evelina, comic and shrewd, is at once a guide to fashionable London, a satirical attack on the new consumerism, an investigation of women's position in the late eighteenth century, and a love story.
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HarryT has uploaded a Kindle edition
here at MR.
All formats are available at
Girlebooks.