She published her first novel anonymously, but she did not remain anonymous for long. Over the years, she published three further novels, all eagerly sought by her reading public—including an aspiring author in the village of Steventon, Hampshire, named Jane Austen. In Austen’s impassioned defense of novels in Northanger Abbey, she named as examples three novels “in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed.” Of those three, two were by Burney. But before them came Burney’s first published novel: the one she could not bring herself to destroy. It was called Evelina.
