'The town soon went wild about the story [Evelina] [...] Mrs. Thrale read it, and liked it better than Madame Riccoboni's Tales [...] she lent it to Dr. Johnson. He was very unwilling to read it -- but once he was persuaded to begin the story, he was delighted with it. "Why, madam, what a charming book you lent me," he said to Mrs. Thrale, on finishing the first volume, and he anxiously asked to know whom Evelina married. He protested, too, that there were passages in it that would do honour to Richardson, and that Henry Fielding never drew such a character as Mr. Smith.'