I really enjoyed Evelina, however, as I read I could not but think of Pamela. While Evelina was not as blatant, and Burney's character infinitely more human and relatable than Pamela, the conclusion was ultimately the same, that if you just try your best to follow the rules of society, you will be rewarded handsomely.
Even more so than Pamela, Evelina reminded me of a Jane Austen novel. The parallels with Austen's Persuassions were never ending. Both novels utilize the a heroine to portray a proper woman of their time. Having most recently read some reviews of Austen's work from the 19th Century, I could not help but feel that Burney was trying to create the same effect(obviously before Austen), they both created novels that could also double as a handbook for how women should behave. What is funny about the review from these time periods is the fear that women would read these novels and think that stories like this could happen to them too. Apparently the men didn't want them to have big dreams of chivalrous men that would come and sweep them off their feet no matter what their social status. imagine that!
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I read an essay called "Censoring the Realist Gaze" for my 19th Century European novel class, and it addresses some of the issues that you read in other articles. The author Jann Matlock gives a brief history of some of the fear that plagued the 19th century, and connects it to the controversy that surrounded Flaubert's Madame Bovary. Flaubert was put on trial because many people were afraid that the novel would seduce women readers with its sensualism. One really interesting part of her essay is she includes real caricatures that depict the dangers of expanding the female perspective. There is one drawing that shows a mother taking her daughter to the doctor because she has conjunctivitis. Conjunctivitis is inflammation of the eye, and the drawing suggests that the daughter suffers from this ailment because she was exposed to harmful material.
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