Frances Burney - Cecilia

Cecilia

In 1782 she published Cecilia, or Memoirs of an Heiress, written partly at Chessington Hall and after much discussion with Mr Crisp. The publishers, Messrs Payne & Cadell, paid Frances £250 for her novel, printed 2000 copies of the first edition, and reprinted it at least twice within a year.

The plot of Cecilia revolves around the heroine, Cecilia Beverley, whose inheritance from her uncle comes with the stipulation that she find a husband who will accept her name. Beset on all sides by would-be suitors, the beautiful and intelligent Cecilia's heart is captivated by a man whose family's pride in its birth and ancestry would forbid the only son-and-heir's change of name. This young man finally persuades Cecilia, against all her good judgement, to agree to marry him secretly, so that their union - and, thus, the change of name - can be presented to the family as a fait accompli. The work received praise for the mature tone of its ironic third-person narration, but was viewed as less spontaneous than her first work, and as weighed down by the author’s self-conscious awareness of her own audience. Some critics claim to have found the narration intrusive, while some of her friends found the writing too closely modelled on Johnson's. Edmund Burke greatly admired the novel, but moderated his praise with a criticism of the enormous array of characters and convoluted intertwined plots.

The title of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice appears in a sentence in Cecilia.