SOURCE: “How to Read Like a Gentleman: Burney's Instructions to Her Critics in Evelina,” in ELH, Vol. 57, No. 3, Fall, 1990, pp. 557-83.

In the following essay, Campbell states that Evelina includes a “model of reading” similar to conduct literature in its concern with propriety, which is intended to instruct Burney's critics on how to read her work. Campbell further evaluates the way in which the male characters in the novel “read” Evelina, and render female characters into “texts” by objectifying them.

In Evelina's dedication, “To the Authors of the Monthly and Critical Reviews,” Frances Burney courts her prospective critics' attention or, more precisely, their protection. What is peculiar about this dedication is its tone of instruction:

The extensive plan of your critical observations,—which, not confined to works of utility or ingenuity, is equally open to those of frivolous amusement—and, yet worse than frivolous, dullness,—encourages me...