CECILIA

OR

Memoirs of an Heiress

by

FRANCES BURNEY


PREFACE

"Fanny's Cecilia came out last summer, and is as much liked and read,
I believe, as any book ever was," wrote Charlotte Burney in Jan.
1783. "She had 250 pounds for it from Payne and Cadell. Most people
say she ought to have had a thousand. It is now going into the third
edition, though Payne owns that they printed two thousand at the
first edition, and Lowndes told me five hundred was the common number
for a novel." [Footnote: _The Early Diary of Frances Burney, with a
selection from her correspondence, and from the journals of her
sisters Susan and Charlotte Burney._ Edited by Annie Raine Ellis.
1889. Vol. II. p. 307.]

The manuscript of _Cecilia_ was submitted to Dr Burney and Mr
Crisp during its composition, and their suggestions were in some
cases adopted, as we learn from the _Diary_. Dr Johnson was not
consulted, but a desire at once to imitate and to please him
evidently controlled the work.