Camilla
by Fanny Burney
Category: Fiction

Camilla Tyrold and her sisters embark on an unpredictable path toward true love in this eighteenth-century English novel by the author of Evelina. First published in 1796, Camilla recounts the romantic misadventures of the Tyrold sisters—spirited Camilla, sweet Lavinia, and witty but shy Eugenia—as well as their beautiful and flirtatious cousin Indiana Lynmere. As the girls come of age together, misunderstandings, hasty judgments, and impetuous decisions take their lives on unexpected paths. For Camilla and her father’s ward, Edgar Mandelbert, falling in love is anything but simple. Handsome and upright, Edgar soon discovers he is intended to marry Indiana. But even as the attraction between him and Camilla becomes undeniable, jealousy, gossip, and their own youthful emotions present one challenge after another. A major influence on Jane Austen, Fanny Burney’s Camilla blends lighthearted romantic comedy with gothic episodes of tragedy and misfortune in an evocative depiction of eighteenth-century English life.