Camilla

I just finished Camilla; or, A Picture of Youth by Fanny Burney. It was long and frustrating, but ultimately fairly rewarding.

I recently read Evelina, which is epistolary. Camilla is a more usual third-person narrative. I think Evelina is more enjoyable, but not everyone likes that format.

Camilla is about a rich family who is incapable of communicating with each other. Most of the events of the book would not have happened if the characters just spoke more honestly. Silly rich people!

In Northanger Abbey, John Thorpe says of Camilla, "there's nothing in the world in it but an old man's playing at see-saw and learning Latin." Like Catherine Morland, this critique was lost on me. Now I see what he meant. And, by extension, what Jane Austen meant by Thorpe saying that and Catherine not getting it. Clever Jane!

By coincidence, a friend was asking about pre-decimal English coins on Mastodon. I pointed out that Camilla features half guineas a number of times! I have to believe a half guinea was worth ten shillings and sixpence, else the whole system is even weirder than it appears.