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Articles

Vol. 18 (2021)

A Book “Seen by Every Butcher & Baker, Cobler & Tinker”: Early English Evelina Rediscovered

DOI
https://doi.org/10.26443/tbj.v18i.481
Submitted
October 22, 2024
Published
2021-12-31

Abstract

At the height of its popularity, Burney’s Evelina was frequently republished in English both in Britain by the copyright holder Lowndes and outside of its borders and the sphere of influence of British copyright law, notably in Ireland. This essay reveals that the only bibliography of Burney’s works by Joseph Grau (1981) did not correctly document the true extent of the novel’s production by these two most important sources supplying the book to Anglophone readers. It uncovers the number and variety of Evelina’s editions and reprints produced by the publishing house of Thomas and William Lowndes (15) and their Irish counterparts (7) for different segments of the English-speaking book market in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Evelina’s corrected early publication history demonstrates a fuller and more complex picture of its reach to and popularity among the reading public in Britain and abroad, underestimated until now.