Raised in rural seclusion by her guardian after her aristocratic father refuses to claim her, seventeen-year-old Evelina Anville is finally invited into fashionable late-eighteenth-century London. Told through her letters, the novel follows her stumbling, often mortifying entrance into a glittering, unforgiving society—and the admirers, snobs, and schemers she meets along the way.
Being treated as a lightweight is not only something done to women by condescending men; women can feed it through their own behavior. The book's social comedy shows patronizing men and the women who play along in the same picture, so the belittling is something both sides keep going.