New in paperback. Hardcover was published in 2008. Burney's last novel contains two striking tales. Based on her travels on the continent, The Renunciation presents a colourful picture of life abroad. An English girl travels to Italy in search of kin and supports herself as an artist, offering an early feminist heroine. The Hermitage is a gripping psychological thriller involving a ruined country maiden and an unsolved murder. With shades of the Gothic, it offers a case-study of the after-effects of trauma, anticipating the genre of the detective novel and challenging prevailing critical assumptions of the patriarchal origins of the genre.