The Name Held in Other Hands
Lady Howard writes that Madame Duval has surfaced after years of silence. The grandmother wants Evelina in Paris. The letter is not tenderness. It is a late claim on a girl Duval did not raise, sent to the people who actually did the raising.
Key Insight
Identity can be treated as property that becomes interesting when it is useful. The first threat is not always a rake. It can be a relative with a story to tell and a girl to display.
“Can any thing, my good Sir, be more painful to a friendly mind, than a necessity of communicating disagreeable intelligence?”Explore full theme analysis
