1875 – 1925

During the period 1875–1925, Miss Austen climbs securely into the canon, being deemed worthy of scholarly treatment as well as lavishly illustrated editions. 

At the same time, Austen’s novels appear in ultra-cheap reprintings for working-class readers by means of stereotyping and periodicals, and are awarded as book prizes to children in schools. It is said that reading her fiction is even recommended therapeutically to veterans of World War I. 

Jane Austen becomes the first novelist to receive the type of rigorous textual treatment hitherto reserved by academics for classical texts and Shakespeare.  

STEREOTYPING 

These nine copies of Sense and Sensibility, all published from the same stereotype plates by George Routledge date from about 1851 to 1883, and are considered bibliographically identical in spite of their distinct packaging. Cheap, stereotyped, and undated reprints like these are often overlooked by libraries and collectors, who remain oblivious of their existence, as they do not receive separate entries in even the most definitive bibliographies. As a result, surviving copies of Austen’s bargain reprints can be scarcer than those of her first editions, which were safeguarded due to their high prices. 

AUSTEN FOR EVERYONE 

Austen became fodder for cheap fiction series for ordinary readers on both sides of the Atlantic, where she kept company with unlikely companions. Austen novels were lopped and cropped for mass-market penny editions, reissued in parts in tight multiple columns in magazines, exchanged for soap wrappers, and reprinted in publishers’ series for children. 

Representative showing of sixpence paperbacks of Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice. London: George Routledge & Sons, n.d. (both); London: John Dicks, n.d., ca. 1880s (Sense and Sensibility). 

Multiple surviving copies of three publications, all priced at sixpence, allow us to show the eye-catching illustrated covers, two-column layout, and back-cover advertisements that were typical of these popular early paperbacks. Advertisements helped to lower their cost. 

Sense and Sensibility. Penny Library of Famous Books series, No. 27. London: George Newness Ltd., 1896. And Pride and Prejudice. Edited by W. T. Stead for Penny Popular Novels series, No. 16. London: “Review of Reviews” Office, 1896.  

This is Austen sold to the masses for a penny. 

Mansfield Park. In weekly installments for Dicks’ English Library of Standard Works, No. 11. London, 1885, and Sense and Sensibility. In installments. Franklin Square Library, No. 84. New York: Harper & Brothers, 31 October 1879.

In both Britain and America, Austen’s books were serialized in magazines, priced at half a penny and fifteen cents per issue, respectively. 

Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. Shown beside Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Chicago: Homewood, n.d. 

In publishers’ series for young readers, Austen kept company with unlikely shelf-mates, as if to say, “You liked Uncle Tom’s Cabin? Then you’ll enjoy Pride and Prejudice.” In a sly effort to keep their content evergreen, publishers printed such series with no date on the title page—another bibliographical strike against them. 

Austen, Jane. Sense and Sensibility. Shown beside Day, Thomas. Sandford and Merton. Port Sunlight, Cheshire: Lever Brothers Limited, n.d., ca. 1890–97.  

In the years 1890 to 1897, the Lever Brothers soap company gave away about 1.5 million books of popular fiction to working-class children in exchange for soap wrappers (contestants had to be under 17). Their long list of giveaway titles included Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility. Here, Austen in a promotional Lever edition keeps company with Thomas Day’s adventure tale about two boys.  

AUSTEN FOR MEN 

Pride and Prejudice and Northanger Abbey. Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, n.d., ca. 1890s.  

Through book drives, Austen reached soldiers at the front in World War I. This copy is a rare wartime survivor that still bears its War Service Library bookplate.  

The Story-Teller. May 1924. The colored illustrated cover advertises “Kipling’s New Story” entitled “The Janeites.” 

In Rudyard Kipling’s famous short story The Janeites, World War I soldiers read Austen’s novels at the front and named their guns after some of her characters. The term Janeites cements the growing Cult of Jane.  

FINE EDITIONS 

Luxury editions demonstrate publishers’ faith in Austen’s staying power and commercial appeal. Public interest in Austen now extends beyond her six novels to her juvenilia and other previously unpublished stories, fragments, and letters.   

Pride and Prejudice, with a preface by George Saintsbury and illustrations by Hugh Thomson. London: George Allen, 1894. 

This is the famous “Peacock Edition,” exuberantly illustrated by Hugh Thomson. Originally issued as a Christmas-time gift book, this edition has become a collector’s must-have. 

The Works of Jane Austen. Illustrated by Hugh Thomson. Introduction by Austin Dobson. 5 vols. London and New York: Macmillan & Co., 1897. 

Jane Austen’s Novels. In Series of English Idylls. Illustrated by C. E. Brock. London: J. M. Dent & Co., 1907–8. 

Love & Freindship and Other Early Works. Now First Printed from the Original MS. London: Chatto & Windus, 1922.  2 copies.  

ILLUSTRATING AUSTEN 

Brock, Charles E. Original signed pen-and-ink illustration for Pride and Prejudice in Macmillan’s edition of 1895: “She stood several minutes before the picture in earnest contemplation.” 

Brock, Charles E. Original signed pen-and-ink illustration for Pride and Prejudice in Macmillan’s edition of 1895: “You must come and make Lizzie marry Mr. Collins.” 

Thomson, Hugh. Original signed pen-and-ink with watercolor illustration for Northanger Abbey in Macmillan’s edition of 1897: “I beg your pardon, Miss Morland.”  

Thomson, Hugh. Original signed pen-and-ink with watercolor illustration for Mansfield Park in Macmillan’s edition of 1897: “Fanny was obliged to introduce him to Mr. Crawford.”  

After his illustrations were reproduced by Macmillan as small-format, black-and-white line drawings, Thomson added watercolor to his originals. 

Brock, Charles E. Original signed illustration for Sense and Sensibility for the Dent and Dutton edition of 1908: “Cut off a long lock of her hair.” 

Brock, Charles E. Original signed illustration for Sense and Sensibility for the Dent and Dutton edition of 1908: “With what indignation such a letter as this must be read by Miss Dashwood . . .” 

LIZZIE LOOKING AT DARCY’S PORTRAIT 

In the gallery there were many family portraits, but they could have little to fix the attention of a stranger. Elizabeth walked on in quest of the only face whose features would be known to her. At last it arrested her—and she beheld a striking resemblance of Mr. Darcy, with such a smile over the face, as she remembered to have sometimes seen, when he looked at her. She stood several minutes before the picture in earnest contemplation, and returned to it again before they quitted the gallery. Mrs. Reynolds informed them, that it had been taken in his father’s life time. 

–Pride and Prejudice 

We have grouped together illustrations of this pivotal moment by different hands, beginning at the top left and moving clockwise: 

EARLY SCHOLARSHIP 

Pellew, George. Jane Austen’s Novels. Boston: Cupples, Upham, & Co., 1883.  

This essay, published as a Bowdoin Prize Dissertation, may be the first full-length academic study of Austen.  

The Novels of Jane Austen in Ten Volumes. Edited by Reginald Brimley Johnson. Illustrated by William Cooke. London: J. M. Dent, 1892–96. 

For the first time, readers were told which text was set before them. In each case, R. B. Johnson used as his copytext the last edition printed during the author’s lifetime. Sadly, however, this edition introduced many new errors. 

HOME THEATRICALS 

Filippi, Rosina. Duologues and Scenes from the Novels of Jane Austen Arranged and Adapted for Drawing-Room Performance. Illustrated by Margaret Fletcher. London: J. M. Dent, 1895. 

Filippi’s Duologues offered readers scenes that could be performed by two people at home, such as “Lady Catherine’s Visit.” This publication unlocked the thespian potential in Austen. Our copy has been marked up for performance by a prior owner. 

Black-and-white photographs of two homemade tableaux dated March 1902.  

The bottom photo is captioned “Lady Catherine and Elizabeth Bennet.” The other photo, which shows the same two women, is labeled “Geese.” 

EARLIEST TOURISM 

Hill, Constance. Jane Austen: Her Homes and Her Friends. Illustrated by Ellen G. Hill. London and New York: John Lane, 1902. 

This presentation copy is inscribed as follows: “To | Mary Cameron | from her affectionate friends | the Author | and the Illustrator | Aug. 1908.” This guidebook for devotees shows how Austen’s growing reputation fostered literary tourism.  

THE CHAPMANS 

For nearly a century, Robert W. Chapman (1881–1960) was assumed to be the first scholarly editor of Jane Austen, with his multi-volume edition published by Oxford University’s Clarendon Press in 1923. The Chapman text continues to be cited by scholars today and is hailed for a historical rigor and exactitude that sets it apart from the earlier error-filled reprintings. In fact, however, Robert took the existing project over from his wife, Katharine, who more than a decade earlier had published a groundbreaking but little-known Oxford edition of Pride and Prejudice under her maiden name, Metcalfe. 

Pride and Prejudice. Edited by K. M. Metcalfe. London, New York, Toronto, Melbourne: Henry Frowde for Oxford University Press, 1912. 

Edited by Katharine Marion Metcalfe (1887–1978)—later Mrs. R.W. Chapman—this edition shows who, in her own words, is “really the originator in the editing of Jane Austen.”  

The Novels of Jane Austen. Edited by R. W. Chapman. 5 vols. 2nd ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1926.   

This is Robert Chapman’s personal copy of the second edition, complete with his handwritten corrections for the printing of the third. After he returned from serving in World War I, Katharine allowed her husband to take over her editing project at Oxford University Press. The first edition was published in 1923, with Robert receiving sole credit as editor. 

Chapman, Mr. and Mrs. R.W. Calling card with handwritten note from Katharine Chapman to Margaret Lane, April 22, 1968.  

On the back is a note from the then-widowed Katharine to fellow Austen scholar Maggie Lane: “To Margaret | with much love | from Katharine | 22d April 1968.” The card was found in R.W. Chapmans’ bookplated copy of A Memoir of Jane Austen, gifted by Mrs. Chapman to Margaret Lane, which also held a sheet of her late husband’s manuscript notes.