Editing Evelina

Abstract

This article surveys the seven principal twentieth-century editions of Frances Burney’s Evelina (1778), one of the most popular novels of the eighteenth century. The importance of Evelina has been recognized by its selection as a set text for the Agrégation in France. Our comparative study is designed to help researchers choose which editions of Burney’s novel would be most appropriate for their work on the novel. Beginning with Frank D. MacKinnon’s Oxford edition of 1930, we discuss the strengths and weaknesses, in each case, of the textual editing and the ancillary material, including the introduction, chronology, commentary, appendices, and illustrations. We also examine the turn towards contextual editions of Evelina in the late 1990s.