Jane Austen | Northanger Abbey: and Persuasion, London, 1818, 4 vols in 2, first edition

Jane Austen

Northanger Abbey: and Persuasion. London: John Murray, 1818

FIRST EDITION, 4 volumes in 2 (Northanger Abbey bound in volume 1, Persuasion bound in volume 2), 12mo (158 x 98mm.), half-titles, contemporary half calf over marbled boards, speckled edges, spotting and browning, final text leaf of Northanger Abbey vol.1 and title-page of Northanger Abbey vol.2 with small tear at inner margin, spines lacking morocco labels, extremities rubbed

With a marginal annotation in the hand of a nineteenth century reader on verso of "Advertisement, by the Authoress" leaf in volume 1, quoting Thomas Babington Macaulay ("'Read Dickens' "Hard Times" & another book of "Pliny's Letters"; read "Northanger Abbey", worth all Dickens & Pliny together, yet it was the work of a girl'. | Macauley'). 

Austen's final two novels were published posthumously in 1818, although Northanger Abbey had actually been drafted fifteen years earlier with the working title 'Susan', which was only abandoned when another novel with of the same name appeared in 1809. Austen's manuscript had been sold to publisher Richard Crosby, but for some reason remained unpublished, and it was only after the publication of Emma that Henry arranged to buy it back. It is assumed that Austen wrote the statement which precedes the text shortly after this, in which she observes, "That any bookseller should think it worth while to purchase what he did not think it worth while to publish seems extraordinary." It was finally brought out after Austen's death in July 1817 alongside Persuasion, which was completed by Austen over the summer of 1816, shortly before she was forced to stop writing due to ill health. The "Biographical Notice of the Author" was written by her brother Henry. 

PROVENANCE

"Julie Harlock | From F & E.C.I. 1882 | A wayside 'find'": presentation inscription to preliminary blank of volume 1