From the back cover: "'How vastly odious this new father of yours is!' said Lady Honoria, in a whisper to Cecilia; 'what could ever induce you to give up your charming estate for the sake of coming into his fusty old family!'"
Cecilia is an heiress and an orphan. Elegant in form and liberal of heart, she enters her twenty-first year with every advantage, but no guiding hand. There is one condition attached to Cecilia's inheritance: if she marries, the man of her choice must take her name. Then Cecilia falls in love with a passionate aristocrat, Mortimer Delvile, and as so often happens, the course of true love fails to run smooth. For Mortimer's parents, as "the result of PRIDE and PREJUDICE", refuse to countenance the exchange of Cecilia's wealth for their ancient family name. First published in 1782, this, Fanny Burney's second novel, has been out of print for over seventy years. Entertaining and absorbing, it provided Jane Austen with more than just the title for her novel, Pride and Prejudice.