With one more comment focusing on a comparison to Pamela, one of the first things I noticed when I began reading Burney's Evelina was the letter form. Structurally similar, I half expected Evelina to be as tedious to me as the challenge set forth by reading Pamela--but I have been pleasantly surprised. While Pamela's letters to her father have a single-sided edge to them as she constantly praises herself, Evelina's letter to Mr. Villars reveal her own follies within a society that she in unaccustomed to. For this reason Evelina's "with all love and duty" was just so much easier to stomach than the pomp of Pamela's "your most dutiful daughter..."
One reading more though, it is exposed to the reader that Evelina's 'follies' are not always so likeable. Whereas she certainly acts out of line sometimes out of naivete, he disdain for everyone around her who is not high society is quite disgusting. She resents being in the company of her very own family, because they are ill-bred, and this carries through as she writes "nothing could be more disagreeable to me, than being seen by Sir Clement Willoughby with a party at once so vulgar in themselves, and so familiar to me" (246)--she longs for the acceptance of a man she barely cares to even speak to! Although I have not yet finished the novel, from somewhere beyond the midway point, its seems that Evelina's endearing qualities have shifted to borderline bratty.
But even so, Mr. Villars has the ability to shift my opinion of Evelina to admirability. While the reader becomes so involved with Evelina's tales of her disgust for her company, he notes that she acts with strength during the 'pistol scene.' This brought me back to believe that although Evelina has her faults, this is only NORMAL (in contrast with Pamela), aand she remains in my mind, a character to be admired.
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Great title Tova and very insightful comment. the snobbery is not a little issue--I hope that we will be able to give it some dimension in class. I think it is likely to affect readers in different ways. As with all epistolary novels, the author's actual opinion must be inferred--does Burney basically back up Evelina or is she trying to show up her flaws? If we do convict Evelina and Burney of snobbery, important questions remain: does the book and its heroine have other attractive qualities that make up for it? How does snobbery fit into the larger world that Burney is depicting? does the fact that Burney is a woman give snobbery a different dimension for her?
Both you and Guiliana note the differences from Richardson--I think it would be helpful to tease those out--especially to articulate the distinctive ways in which Burney is exploiting the epistolary form. Since she is writing second, her choices and especially her differences imply a certain critique of her illustrious predecessor.
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