1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die

  • Gulliver's Travels
  • Roxana
  • Moll Flanders
  • Love In Excess
  • Robinson Crusoe
  • A Tale of a Tub
  • Oroonoko
  • The Princess of Cleves

Friday, January 13, 2012

46. Cecilia by Fanny Burney

Another novel by Fanny Burney.  This time the heroine's dilemma is that she is heiress to a large fortune, but to retain it when she marries her husband must take her name.  Naturally she falls in love with Mortimer Delvile, the son of a family very proud of their name, and his family, while fond of Cecilia, won't allow Mortimer to marry her. Meanwhile she is faced with three guardians, all equally unsuitable (one greedy, one miserly, one proud).

Eventually Cecilia and Mortimer marry secretly and Cecilia gives up her wealth to a distant cousin.  Through a series of misunderstandings Mortimer suspects Cecilia of being unfaithful, Cecilia thinks herself abandoned and becomes ill, then Mortimer realises she is innocent and all is resolved happily.

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