Video: But What About...Evelina

Somehow, by accident, I have taken to make one of these every Christmas. The rule is that I have a cold and I watch my umpteenth 'A Christmas Carol'.

This time is the big one, Francis Burney's Evelina.

I've talked about it a number of times, in various big reads (1,2,3,4,5,6) and a read for the Dr Johnson Book Circle.

I ramble a bit, I'm not feeling all too good - but here it is.

Fuller Thought on Evelina, the Final Letters

The final fuller thoughts on Evelina as the bookgroup comes to an end.

Rather than jump the shark, Evelina throws in the dressed monkey...what a strange way to end what has been a brilliant book. Some fairly minor comedy character is savaged by a dressed up monkey. It was nice to have the good Captain back, I liked his continued ribbing of Lord Lovell for the stupid comment the Lord made all those months ago. Loves the way he builds it up, winding him up about paying serious money to show friends that he is alive.

However, Lovell is so easy to take the piss out of (I mean, his fake modesty is so incredibly fake, even when he is surrounded by fake people) and we have Mrs Selwyn doing a terrific job of taking the piss without Captain Mirven’s tender ministrations. Another wonderful line from her, “Don’t be angry with the gentleman for thinking, whatever be the cause for I assure you he makes no common practice in offending that way.” - No wonder the Thrale set convinced Fanny to write a play, though I think it odd when none of them particularly like Mrs Selwyn, when I would have liked her in the book much earlier on.

As for the bulk of the section - well, the man to man chat was interesting. Firstly, it must be only time we hear characters talk frankly about their intentions and about Evelina - I still don’t hate poor ol’ Clement Willoughby, it is obvious that he does love Evelina and it is his fecklessness and stupid money that stops him being the sort of fun loving but serious lover that I’d have wanted for Evelina.   However, he is a rotter - writing that letter ‘from’ Orville, and his final letter, anyone else’s heart melt, or just me? 

As for Orville, I learnt to like him. I even learnt to like him and I am sure he and Evelina will be very happy. Nah, I’m being to harsh on him, as he got more passionate, I loved him more. He became a good match for her - he will love and respect her and treat her good.

As for the whole Lord Belmont/Fake Lady Belmont/McCartney stuff - I understood what was happening, but it’s pretty stupid. Poor ol’ Fake Lady Belmont, losing her identity in one go, and what a stupid man Lord Belmont is, bringing up a kid who looks nothing like him or wife and then all the snivelling and crying...and what happened to the Branghtons? And Madam Duvall? 

In total, I found the whole last chunk rather disappointing, though not at the time, it’s only thinking about it after then time that has brought the disappointment.

Still, in summary I think that Evelina is a very enjoyable and gripping book and that Fanny Burney has an eye for character details that raises her as a writer, and a sly viscousness that gives her a dash of interest and danger. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

I’d love to do another one of these soonish, maybe August (I got the month off) - I’d like to do ‘The Female Quixote’ by Charlotte Lennox.

All yours

My Full(er) Thoughts on Evelina, Letters 54-71

Hehe, I love the Branghtons, they have magnificent cheek, using Evelina’s name to borrow his coach, and that divvy young Mr Branghton sticking his head through the window and then using it as a business opportunity. I can see why Evelina finds them so toe-curlingly embarrassing but I think they are wonderful characters. I was also impressed that her actions worked and that Mr Smith is no longer bothering her.

Indeed, I was loving the Branghtons so much, that I was a little upset to let Evelina back to Berry Hill for some peace and quiet with the worthy Mr Villars. So I was thrilled when Lord Orville’s letter came along, and I thought it a rather lovely letter indeed, but Evelina obviously didn’t. I wrote in my notebook, ‘this part, absolutely fantastic, the way the letter’s change as mood does’ - which is on the things I most love about Fanny Burney’s writing, her ability to find the true moment in the situation. (I also wrote down, but did not cite this little snippet, ‘...a violent burst of tears, which indeed proved a happy release’. Of course it did, such a real little moment.) I also do not believe Orville wrote the letter, my money is on Smith.

After some dull moping, we get to go to Bristol with the very entertaining Mrs Selwyn, where we meet some old friends and some new ones. In this whole section, Lord Orville finally comes to life, Fanny gives him his human moments to give him a real personality, he gets to to have moments like this, ‘...hardly spoke a word, and his grave and thoughtful: yet, whenever I raised my eyes, his, I perceived were directed towards me, though instantly,upon meeting mine, he looked another way.’  I think it is this, that he finally gets to become himself is what warms Orville to us, rather than his jealousy over McCartney and Willoughby. 

Other old friends are the Lord’s Merton and Lovell. Where, in the city they seemed harmless and irritating fops, in Bristol, they’ve become driven half mad by boredom. They race light chariots against each other, thank goodness Mrs Selwyn is there to prick their pomposity and tell them how stupid they were. This absurdly led to the old lady race - one of the strangest and cruelest things I have ever read. I found the idea of the young Lords training the women very funny, but the race where the poor women were falling over painfully, it was horrid and no longer funny.

As for new characters, Mrs Larpent - what a cow. As Mr Smith was faux-gallant, she was faux-feminine. Pretending to be weak and easily scared, when it is clear that in her air-headed way she is as firm and cold and steely as something firm and cold and steely. I hate the way she ignores Evelina as well, though that means that Evelina gets to spend time with the increasingly warm Lord Orville and I don’t think she’d have much to do with Lydia anyway.

And as for Mrs Selwyn, I love ‘er, she’s incredibly good fun and to her I’ll give her the last word, when asked how Evelina enjoys her time she responds;

 "In a manner that your Lordship will think very extraordinary.... For the young Lady reads.” Good on the young lady, good on Mrs Selwyn.

Yours

My Full(er) Thoughts on Evelina, Letters 38-53

Usual stuff, Evelina bookgroup - see the discussion here

Mr Smith, yuck. I may have a soft spot for Willoughby but no-one will ever get me to like Smith. Incidentally Smith was Samuel Johnson’s favourite character and he used to do impressions of him, which I can completely imagine. All that creepy crawling ‘I don’t care about me, whatever the ladies want’ stuff. All that mock concern when it is obvious that he couldn’t care less for anyone but himself.

And the Branghtons, I found them rather sweet at first, they bicker and moan amongst each other and have all those very real tiffs and in-jokes but then they started to grate. Young master Branghton needs to grow up, he is so incredibly immature and the idea of Evelina getting together with him is nearly as icky as her getting together with Mr Smith. (I don’t mind the prospect of her and M Du Bois, he seems a sweety, and his poor little moping when she turns him down.)

The Vauxhall scene is my favourite in the book so far. The day I read it, I went to the Museum of London and they replay parts of it in the Vauxhall Gardens Experience they have there. There is the bit with the dumb Mr Brown looking ‘half the garden’ for her and the bit with her on in the Dark Lanes being saved by my old mucker Willoughby. Again, she is in his debt - but I still reckon they are as honourable as his intentions can get.

I like the bit where they make Smith look silly talking about the paintings, ‘I think a pretty picture is a-a very-is really a very - is something very pretty.-’ Now if that isn’t one of the most perfectly captured little piece of embarrassment. If you notice, Madame Duval’s reaction is not to laugh, but to agree. I think the mystery of her closeness to the Branghtons is simply that although she is rich and can buy rich clothes, she has not taste.

Next comes another fantastic scene, the one where Mr Smith takes Evelina and Madame Duvall to the Hampstead Assembly where she learns from her first assembly that she can’t dance with him after being offered by others and so essentially stands him up. I love how his mask melts at the thought of having to dance with the older lady, who is far more up for it then he hoped. 

This is followed shortly by McCartney’s letter. McCartney was another one Johnson had a soft spot for but he hasn’t really set my soul on fire. I’ve read a lot of eighteenth century novels the last few years and it is pretty common for any novel after the 1750s to have a weepy subplot that doesn’t contribute all that much to the main plot as some token nod to the cult of sensibility. I predict that McCartney will be Evelina’s. Not that I dislike the cult of sensibility, Tristram Shandy and Vicar of Wakefield are two of my faves, and I even enjoyed The Man of Feeling, but I don’t feel such a subplot is needed in Evelina.

Finally, the Marybone Gardens scene, which is too close to the Vauxhall one, except she gets saved by Lord Orwell instead. Again I am struck how every bit of the representation of Orville’s character is about how he makes Evelina feel - we still haven’t discovered him through Fanny Burney’s exquisite use of little character moments and so, although he is a perfectly nice person, he is still not a vivd character. 

All yours

My Full(er) Thoughts on Evelina, Letters 21-37

I'm reading Evelina by Fanny Burney as part of a reading group for The Duchess of Devonshire's Gossip Guide to the C18th, this is my expanded thoughts.

Poor Ol’ Willoughby; so maligned, disliked and distrusted and all he wants is to have a good time. I have quite a few mates like Clement; funny, charming, the centre of the party and rather shallow. Great for a drink but awful as a confidant. I am drawn to people like this, I like their energy, their sense of fun and their lust for life, but people like this do not think about the their actions and what may seem like an enjoyable and amusing game of courtship to him could seriously and permanently injure Evelina’s reputation. It’s not that he means any harm, I think he’d be quite shocked if he thought his actions could be read in a malicious way, which is exactly what makes him so unpredictable and dangerous. Flattering and adoring is nothing more than banter, turning the carriage around, a bit of sport and pretending to mug an innocent, if odious, old lady something to tell the lads in the pub later on.

Am I picky in saying the prank does not actually contain a real robbery – as the women were convinced to leave their cash and valuables at a pub before setting out and had them returned. I think this little instance shows that Captain Mirvan does have some limits, that he will not rob a lady but he will scare here half to death and truss her up like a goose for his own amusement…and what about Evelina? Knowing what is really happening the whole time and not saying anything about it? This reminds me of Samuel Johnson’s comment on courage, "Unless a man has that virtue, he has no security for preserving any other." And also makes me think of the completely unenviable position a woman was in then.

As for Evelina, I think her actions at the opera reflected badly on her. Yes the Branghtons are vulgar and rude and embarrassing, but her problems and scares with getting in a coach with a lone man, stem from her trying to get away from them. However, (and maybe this because I feel I am more a Branghton than a Lord Orville) I found their objections to opera (it’s silly, stilted and they don’t even sing in English) to be rather sound and I find their honesty and directness far more pleasing. For Evelina to be so utterly mortified about them seems more like prissiness to me, snobbish prissiness at that. As the orphaned, unmonied ward of a country clergyman, it seems a bit of a surprise that only earls, lords and dukes are cultivated enough for her. I have embarrassing relatives, but they are my family and I can enjoy their company – why can’t Evelina? (My opinion of both Evelina and the Branghtons changes as we go on however.)

Poor Evelina has had a bit of a time of it, and we know it’s only going to get worse…

Yours

My Full thoughts on Evelina, letters 1-20

I'm involved in a discussion in the book 'Evelina' by Fanny Burney here but did not want to overload the board with all my thoughts, so they are as follow....

The first two letters had me dismayed at agreeing to pick up and read this book. The reader is plunged into whole swathes of intricate backstory, with only a little chance to note the names and relations of the characters and what they all wanted. Indeed, it was some of the clumsiest handling of exposition I have ever read.

But the next seven letters, where Mrs Howard convinces Villars to send Evelina to her house and then to London were effective at building up tension and import before Evelina is launched onto London life.

From here the book begins to hit its marks, the first touristy letter gives a realistic portrayal of the salubrious ends of town as well as giving us Evelina’s surprise that it is not as grand as she expected. The trip to the theatre gave the author a chance to rhapsodise about David Garrick (who she also rhapsodised about in her diaries when he would come round and the girls would shuffle for his attention). Then there are the descriptions of going ‘a-shopping’. These were not merely boring lists of pretty things bought but included lots of lovely comic details - such as the men so knowledgable in women’s things that she wanted to know ‘how long they had left off wearing them’; or the fact that Mrs Mirven’s hair had been dressed so high she couldn’t wear her new hat. 

There is also the detail about how the sales-assistants were so courteous and so persuasive that she wanted to buy everything, much the same thing happened in Goldsmith’s Citizen of the World where the chinese philosopher, Lien Altangi goes into a shop and ends up buying several yards of silk that he didn’t really want due to the immense flattery he received. This would then seem to be a common stereotype of Londoners at the time, that their sales-assistants could sell you anything and make you feel like royalty in the process.

Next we come to our first great set-piece, the private ball. What struck me about the ball was not it’s propriety or distance from the present, but how closely the experience of the ball is to a night club today. Evelina, who has never been to anything like it, is fearful of her dancing skills, steps into the room, which seems to be full of hundreds of strangers. Again and again we are drawn back to the fact that she doesn’t recognise anyone and her self-consciousness and overwhelming lack of confidence make the whole experience quite hostile - who, has not felt this when walking into a nightclub, especially one where they were obviously not a regular? I’ve wandered into a few clubs that were not my natural domain, a hip-hop club, a roller-disco, even an s&m dungeon and this feeling of intense self awareness is true and wonderfully expressed by the author, (who, if her diary is anything to go by, often felt out of place and awkward and was very shy).

The next part that feels completely realistic is Evelina’s being asked out by an ugly man almost as soon as she walks in. She feels that slight twinge of ‘am I going to do any better than this?’ but turns him down in the hope that she will. This shows her inner strength in waiting for the next day but also her good grace in the polite manner in which she does it. I have heard much harsher rebuttals than hers. Though he doesn’t take it well, and we know that he’ll be back at some point.

Then, here comes Lord Orville in a soft focus of adjectives but no actual concrete details. Indeed, most of Lord Orville’s scenes are very dimly reported as to actual detail, and this is by an author who I am realising has a very pleasing eye for the telling detail. This is because it is not what Lord Orville does or says as much as how he makes Evelina feel. His descriptions are barely descriptions of him but descriptions of Evelina’s emotions towards him - principally awkwardness and embarrassment. His first attempts with Evelina are painful in her self-consciousness, her feeling of not being good enough for this paragon, which ironically ensure that she isn’t - though he sees through all this of course. That painful consciousness (that I certainly get) when you meet someone you are instantly attracted to and so turn into a lemon are wonderfully described.

Things get worse at the Ridotto, where trying to avoid the attentions of a very forward young men, she claims she already has a partner. The forward young man presses and teases the whole time - I think I’ve gone for a drink with this guy - the way he prods and wangles until Lord Orville comes over and everything gets too embarrassing. Then, the way he clings onto the Mirven party throughout - inveigling himself with the newly arrived, cantankerous Captain Mirven - is really well observed. The reader can find him too pushy and irritating but at the same time admire his persistence and good humour, this is a funny guy - especially when he plays tag teams with the Captain. (The fact that Evelina notices his strategies so acutely make me wonder if she isn’t so innocent of the ways of the world as she pretends).

Then we get our next main character the (rather too) coincidental introduction of Madame Duval, Evelina’s estranged French grandmother - who, at the moment, is mainly there for a spot of French baiting.  Although Captain Mirven’s French baiting could become too much of a good thing, I have enjoyed his glee at seeing Madame Duval clumped in mud and the suggestion that it may have been him in the dark that caused the accident. I also liked the scene at the toy museum, which does very well exemplify in the difference between the English and the French. He sees the toys and asks in that empirical English way, ‘what is it for?’ ‘what does it do?’ ‘why is it?” - he sees the toy pineapple with the singing birds and declares in his loud voice (btw, which embarrassing uncle does he remind you of?) that he would prefer a real pineapple because it is more satisfying. I then like him taking the mic out of Madam Duval’s musical raptures - and then the bit where he shoves the smelling salts under her nose because he is pretending that she is having a fit - all very realistic for a certain kind of Englishman even now.

As for the Brangtons - I know they will become something important, but at the moment they seem sweet - and rather rudely spurned by Evelina. 


Yours

Big Evelina Read

I'm taking part in the big Evelina Read on The Duchess of Devonshire's Gossip Page. 

I've read a biography of the author, Fanny Burney and some of her juvenile diaries - she also comes up in many of the Thraliana papers I have read and has a little peek in Boswell's Life of Johnson - so it's about time I actually read some of her writing.

To be frank, I was rather put off her writing by her character, which seems very faux-mousey and the character of Evelina does have that quality - but I am now on the twentieth letter (it's an epistolary novel) and I am very into it and laughing/smiling with great frequency. 

More about Evelina on the 2nd June

(but if you want to here about Eve, check out 'Death of a Dreamonger' on the left hand bar). 

Yours