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amy_haynes 's review for:

Evelina by Frances Burney
4.0

A very enjoyable book, light, funny and romantic at times, interspersed with serious problems and farcical situations. You can clearly see Jane Austen had been heavily influenced by Frances Burney's writing and spotting some similar themes, names and turns of phrase made it very comfortable to listen to. That being said it's much longer and far more critical of its era's treatment of women and class and more direct with it's observations of some of the worst characters.

The reason it's not 5 stars is most likely due to a change in times (more than 200 years) I didn't really understand the motivations of some of the characters (even after they had been explained) but I imagine it's from a lack of understanding of the time and expectations of their society. Likewise, the romance wast particularly convincing as an epsitolery it rather told than showed the romance. It was also very long, and at times overly gushing which made it drag in places. 

I will definitely look into some of her other works.