Evelina, novel of manners by Frances Burney, published anonymously in 1778.
The novel was Burney’s first work, and it revealed its 26-year-old author to be a keen social commentator with an ear for dialect. Evelina traces the social development of an indifferently reared young girl who is unsure of herself and subject to errors of manners and judgment but eventually overcomes her deficiencies and manages to marry. Innovative in its coolly detached treatment of contemporary manners and its use of the erring and uncertain conduct of the heroine for its plot development, Evelina pointed the way for the novels of Jane Austen.