*Cecilia*—that is, Frances Burney’s magnificent second novel—is breaking my heart. I picked it up after being floored by her first, *Evelina*, for its cutting wit, epistolary laundering of unladylike opinions, and turns of phrase like *universally acknowledged* circa 1778. To the extent Burney is remembered at all, it tends to be for another such line in *Cecilia*: “‘if to *Pride and Prejudice *you owe your miseries, so wonderfully is good and evil balanced, that to *Pride and Prejudice* you will also owe their termination.’” It is seldom disputed the likely source of Austen’s famous title—and yet, one rarely hears about the full extent of Burney’s literary influence. That she also foreran Austen in terms of character and plot, voice and technique. Often, one hears just the opposite. Austen was the only—, the first—, the inventor of—;—and this is part of what makes her the greatest of all time.…