Burney published her fourth novel, "The Wanderer: Or, Female Difficulties", a few days before Charles Burney's death. "A story of love and misalliance set in the French Revolution", it criticises the English treatment of foreigners in the war years. It also pillories the hypocritical social curbs put on women in general – as the heroine tries one means after another to earn an honest penny – and the elaborate class criteria for social inclusion or exclusion. That strong social message sits uneasily within a strange structure that might be called a melodramatic proto-mystery novel with elements of the picaresque. The heroine is no scalliwag, in fact a bit too innocent for modern taste, but she is wilful and for obscure reasons refuses to reveal her name or origin. So as she darts about the South of England as a fugitive, she arouses suspicions. It is not always easy to agree with the author that these are unfair or unjustified. There are a dismaying number of coincidental meetings of characters.