3.5

When I'm forced to read something for school and it's in a genre that I don't like to begin with, I come into reading whatever it may be with severe hatred from the very beginning, regardless. This was one of those cases: school reading+romance=BLAHNO.

But this ended up being a good forced read. Told entirely through the letters of Evelina, mainly between Rev. Villars, the man who raised her, it explores the adventures and trials that an educated, but sheltered country girl has when she's given the opportunity to explore city life.

I didn't really think so at first, but Evelina was actually a lot like me--she much preferred her sheltered country life than that in a big city, seeing the drama of the city as relatively pointless and unrelateable and realizing that society of the time wasn't something that she wanted to be associated with. She was an extremely independent character, especially for when this book was written (the late 1700s), but I was a bit annoyed that she was always asking advice of Mr. Villars, most times about relationships and how a lady should act. She was always around women who were much more experienced with city life and relationships, why didn't she just ask them, instead of asking a man about it? A needless nitpick, yes, but still.

Let's get one thing out of the way though--almost all the men in this book were assholes. Yes, I know it was the 1700s in England and pretentiousness and hoighty-toighty-ness (that makes me sound old, doesn't it?) was looked upon as appropriate and admirable qualities. But I disliked it, and don't at all blame Evelina for being a bit abhorred and disturbed by their ways at the first dance that she attended. Captain Mirvan was quite annoying (and I usually like witty, sarcastic characters), Sir Clement was ALWAYS popping up randomly for relatively unknown reasons other than to annoy Evelina and attempt a love triangle, and the various other men that she was exposed to were generally just assholes--I can think of no better word for them. Mr. Villars was a good character, but his letters were quite dull and I usually skimmed them.

The women in the story were split between tolerable and not, in my mind. Evelina's cousins and her grandma seemed too enamored by their own little worlds and trying to drag Evelina into that world, that I really didn't care for them. The various ladies that she stays with--Lady Howard, Ms. Mirvan, Ms. Selwyn--I found to be tolerable and, I thought, a good influence on Evelina.

The entire relationship with Lord Orville was extremely bipolar and although it was the main relationship, it never seemed that strong to me. Evelina was constantly going back and forth as to whether or not she should like him, and he started out as a tolerable character, but then just got boring for me.

There were some amusing parts and there were many instances where Evelina bravely stood up for herself, even when it wasn't "appropriate" to. She was a strong character and I'm sure would be just as appalled by today's society as she was with that of the 1700s.

In all, a strong three stars. The first few letters really turned me off and I didn't think I'd be able to get into it, some of the style caused me to skim read, as did some of the repetitive events, and the ending was relatively abrupt hapilyeverafterFINSIHED! and anticlimactic. I thought it could have warranted a couple of epilogue letters or something of the sort.

I loved this book and found myself laughing out lout several times. So glad that I was assigned this one for school.

In all candor, it's been a while since I was "swept off my feet" by a fictional character. The last one was probably Freddy from Georgette Heyer's Cotillion. But Orville, like some prehistoric Darcy, did just that. And, indeed, if he had been matched with someone his equal, this would have been less of a hidden classic. But, alas!, Evelina faints, bursts into tears, and (spoilers) lacks a sense of humor. In fact, if the tears she shed were real you could probably drown in them. So dull witted was she, that I didn't get the jokes... until the marvelous Mrs. Selwyn shows up.

Similarly, certain areas of the plot feel contrived. She goes to London with Mrs. Duval to meet her father... but then he isn't even mentioned again until the last 10 or so letters? Seems fishy to me.

But Orville! Read it for him. And be glad that Jane Austen (apparently) got inspiration from Fanny.