thought it her duty to obtain her father's consent. She told him
that she had written a book, that she wished to have his
permission to publish it anonymously, but that she hoped that he
would not insist upon seeing it. What followed may serve to
illustrate what we meant when we said that Dr. Burney was as bad
a father as so goodhearted a man could possibly be. It never
seems to have crossed his mind that Fanny was about to take a
step on which the whole happiness of her life might depend, a
step which might raise her to an honourable eminence or cover her
with ridicule and contempt. Several people had already been
trusted, and strict concealment was therefore not to be expected.
On so grave an occasion, it was surely his duty to give his best
counsel to his daughter, to win her confidence, to prevent her
from exposing herself if her book were a bad one, and, if it were
a good one, to see that the terms which she made with the
publisher were likely to be beneficial to her. Instead of this,
he only stared, burst out a-laughing, kissed her, gave her leave
to do as she liked, and never even asked the name of her work.
The contract with Lowndes was speedily concluded. Twenty pounds
were given for the copyright, and were accepted by Fanny with
delight. Her father's inexcusable neglect of his duty happily
caused her no worse evil than the loss of twelve or fifteen
hundred pounds.(12)

After many delays, "Evelina" appeared in January, 1778.
Page xxv

Poor Fanny was sick with terror, and durst hardly stir out of
doors. Some days passed before anything was heard of the book.
It had, indeed, nothing but its own merits to push it into public