This novel is an unusual and disturbing love-story. In playing on the issue of the heroine's name, the novel illustrates the high cost of a patriarchal system. Burney exhibits her powers as a comic writer and a satirist in depicting Cecilia's dismaying entry into the gilded fashionable world. This edition presents 'Cecilia' as it first appeared in 1782, indicating changes Burney made to later editions.
