Fanny Burney’s novel Cecilia is thought to have inspired the title Pride and Prejudice.
The proposed link comes from a passage near the end of Cecilia, published in 1782, where the phrase “pride and prejudice” appears together while the characters discuss the causes and consequences of their troubles. Jane Austen admired Burney’s fiction, making Cecilia a plausible source for her later title.
Austen’s novel was originally called First Impressions and was drafted in 1796–97. She revised it before publication and renamed it around 1811–12. The title therefore was not the name of the original manuscript, and the connection to Burney remains a scholarly attribution rather than a surviving statement by Austen explaining her choice.
Readers sometimes confuse Cecilia with Burney’s other novels, especially Evelina and Camilla. Evelina was the work Austen’s father used for comparison when offering the early manuscript to Thomas Cadell; it is not the novel usually credited with inspiring Austen’s title.