Austen’s early reputation was built almost exclusively upon editions printed in elite runs of somewhere between 750 and 2,000 copies. The cost of a novel was more than the average weekly wage, putting such luxury items out of reach of ordinary customers.
In 1811, the publisher Thomas Egerton sold the first edition of Sense and Sensibility in three volumes in drab boards for fifteen shillings, with a proper binding costing extra. In December 1815, Austen’s next publisher, John Murray, raised that price by six shillings to a golden guinea, the currency of aristocrats, for the three-volume Emma in boards.
“People are more ready to borrow & praise, than to buy,” Jane wrote in an 1814 letter, “which I cannot wonder at.” Austen herself could afford few books, instead subscribing to local lending libraries.
Early known readers of Austen include the Prince Regent, to whom Emma is dutifully dedicated, and members of the aristocracy.
FIRST EDITIONS
Not many London first editions survive in their raw state, since most purchasers bound new books to match the rest of their library. The copies displayed here neatly demonstrate the range of options: plain publisher’s boards (blue or brown) with simple paper labels; partial leather bindings to reinforce spines and corners; and full leather treatments replete with gilt tooling.
Sense and Sensibility: A Novel. In three volumes. By a Lady. London: Printed for the Author, by C. Roworth, Bell-yard, Temple-bar, and published by T. Egerton, Whitehall. 1811.
Austen printed her first novel anonymously and at her own expense.
Pride and Prejudice: A Novel. In three volumes. By the Author of “Sense and Sensibility.” London: Printed for T. Egerton, Military Library, Whitehall. 1813.
The Duke of Beaufort’s bookplate in this first-edition copy of Pride and Prejudice bears witness to the elitism of Austen’s earliest readers.
Mansfield Park: A Novel. In three volumes. By the Author of “Sense and Sensibility,” and “Pride and Prejudice.” London: Printed for T. Egerton, Military Library, Whitehall. 1814.
Note how Austen continues to publish anonymously, being identified only as the author of her prior works.
Emma: A Novel.In three volumes. By the Author of “Pride and Prejudice.” London: Printed for John Murray. 1816. 2 copies.
When the Prince Regent extended a royal invitation for Austen to dedicate her next novel to him, she could not refuse, despite writing privately of her “hate” for the Regent (because he mistreated his wife). A recent discovery in the Royal Archives of an 1811 pre-release receipt for Sense and Sensibility evidences that the future King George IV was indeed among Austen’s earliest readers.
Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. By the Author of “Pride and Prejudice,” “Mansfield-Park,” &c. With a Biographical Notice of the Author. In Four Volumes. London: John Murray, Albemarle-Street. 1818.
Guided through publication by siblings Henry and Cassandra after Jane’s death, this four-volume set contains the Biographical Notice that for the first time publicly acknowledged the identity of the novelist. The set was originally priced at £1 4s., or one pound and four shillings. At a time when a maid of all work earned only six to eight pounds a year (plus perhaps an allowance for sugar and tea), the cost of these novels was equivalent to roughly two months’ salary for a working-class person—even in boards.
EARLIEST REPRINTINGS
Sense and Sensibility: A Novel. In three volumes. By the Author of “Pride and Prejudice.” The Second Edition. London: Printed for the Author, by C. Roworth, Bell-yard, Temple-bar, and published by T. Egerton, Whitehall. 1813.
Austen must have been pleased when the first edition sold out by July 1813, proudly writing to her brother Frank that Egerton had advised printing a second. While the size of the original print run remains unknown, bibliographers speculate that it was small, somewhere between 750 and 1,000 copies. The second edition, revised by the author, did not sell quickly, however, as remainders were advertised in 1815.
Pride and Prejudice: A Novel. In two volumes. By the Author of “Sense and Sensibility,” &c. Third Edition. London: Printed for T. Egerton, Military Library, Whitehall. 1817.
Austen had sold the copyright on this novel, so the profits from its second and third editions went straight into the pocket of her publisher, Thomas Egerton. She learned from her mistake, bargaining to retain the copyrights in her dealings with her next publisher, John Murray. Sadly, her gamble did not pay off, as sales of her later novels were disappointing.
Fragment of letter from Jane to her brother Frank. Monday, 21 March 1814.
Transcription: Perhaps before the end of April, MansfieldPark by the author of S & S.—P. & P. may be in the World.—Keep the name to yourself. I shd not like to have it known beforehand. God bless you.—Cassandra’s best Love. Yours affect.ly
Francis “Frank” Austen (1772–1865) lived long enough to see his sister’s literary reputation grow. Just before his death, Frank responded to requests from early fans, especially Americans, for samples of his sister’s handwriting. This fragment about Mansfield Park, cut from an upside-down postscript, likely honored such a request.
Letter from Jane to her sister, Cassandra. Friday, 28 December 1798.
Cassandra Austen (1773–1845) selected key items from her sister’s papers to pass on to her surviving brothers and nieces as keepsakes. All 66 surviving letters from before the publication of Sense and Sensibility are addressed to Cassandra; no other sibling preserved the voice of the youthful Jane. This surviving letter tells the news of their brother Frank’s naval promotion to the rank of commander: “Frank is made.” Twenty-four at the time, Frank had joined the Royal Navy at age twelve. He would become Admiral of the Fleet in 1863.
[Scott, Walter] Review of Emma in Quarterly Review 14 (Oct. 1815–Jan. 1816): 188–201. Second Edition. London: John Murray, 1821.
This anonymous essay by Sir Walter Scott constituted Austen’s first review. Scott mentions Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice too, wryly observing that Emma “has even less story than either of the preceding novels,” although he “delights” in its “precision.”
“Review of Persuasion and Northanger Abbey.” Gentleman’s Magazine, July 1818. In “Review of New Publications,” pp. 52–53.
Most of this anonymous review of the posthumously published Persuasion with Northanger Abbey concentrates on the “Biographical Notice” penned by Henry Austen. The review closes by observing that Austen’s characters “are principally taken from the middle ranks of life” and that Northanger Abbey is “decidedly preferable” in both “incident” and “moral tendency.”
Austen, James, and Henry Austen, editors. The Loiterer,A Periodical Work, in Two Volumes, First Published at Oxford in the Years 1789 and 1790. Dublin: [no publisher], 1792.
The Loiterer was a literary project of Jane’s older brothers James and Henry while they were university students at St. John’s College, Oxford. Their weekly periodical ran to sixty issues. This volume is an Irish pirated edition of the collected volume that was published in Oxford two years prior. Biographers speculate that the cheeky letter “To the Author of the Loiterer” in Issue 9 [Saturday, 28 March 1789], signed by Sophia Sentiment, may have been thirteen-year-old Jane’s first foray into print.
