Evelina is a naive young lady, entering society for the first time. She has been raised and carefully educated in the country by her affectionate guardian, but now her rich relations begin to show an interest in her. Evelina travels to London where she meets a wide variety of people, not all of them exactly nice. Evelina finds herself in a kind of culture shock as she tries to navigate the different manners of high society in London, but her sweetness and good nature will always win her friends no matter where she goes.

There is also a conundrum surrounding Evelina's birth. Her father refuses to acknowledge her as his daughter, and her guardian is reluctant to pursue legal channels to fight for Evelina's birthright since it would subject Evelina to unpleasant publicity. But nothing in her life can be truly settled until Evelina can confront her father and come to terms with her own parentage.

The thing I love most about this book is the rich language. The book is written in an epistolary style, with most of the letters being from Evelina to her guardian. Every sentence is carefully constructed to tell us something about the character who is writing or speaking. We can tell a lot about the characters from the grace and decorum with which they speak, or the way that they carelessly joke around or insult others. In the middle of it all is Evelina herself, with her own voice describing all the people that she encounters.

This book is a very interesting exploration of class and education, since Evelina is first traveling with pleasant country people with simple good manners similar to herself; then she is staying with her grandmother and cousins who are uneducated, crass, and bad-mannered; and finally she visits with a high-born family who are just as rude as the low-born characters but with more imperious and haughty manners. No matter where she goes, people are rude and mean and sometimes downright dangerous in their intentions. But she also meets people who are kind and generous.

Evelina is at the center of a maelstrom of social expectations and norms. She has a clear sight that can discern what is good and true or what is vulgar and evil. She is not fooled or enticed by the glitter of society. She values what is virtuous and honest. While others might turn a blind eye to coarse behavior, thinking that it is only normal and still considered respectable, Evelina is justly shocked at the evil she finds out in the world, and longs to return to her quiet country life. Because she has such a simple innocence, she is able to see how absurd and excessive London society really is.

Of course, there are many young men who are enchanted with Evelina's beauty and soft manners. Sir Clement Willoughby plagues her with his ardent and dramatic (and obviously insincere) pronouncements of his love for her. Monsieur Du Bois shyly and awkwardly tries to court her. She is only embarrassed by their unwelcome attentions. But it is Lord Orville who treats her with respect and generosity; and in her letters to her guardian, Evelina speaks very highly of him, which her guardian takes a sure sign that some greater emotion is brewing for them both. I loved the sweet slow-burn romance between them! It's really adorable!

I took off one star because the middle of the plot seems to drag out with a lot of similar scenes where Evelina goes to some public event with her cousins, and is somehow separated from them and gets into difficulties with nasty people or some sort of embarrassing situation, and then she sees Lord Orville and is ashamed for him to see her in that situation. That same basic scene happens at least three times. Otherwise, it would have been a five star book.

Overall, this is a novel with many layers of social commentary, love story, coming of age, and family identity. A complete delight!