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“Silly things do cease to be silly if they are done by sensible people in an impudent way.”
Emma
Jane Austen, 1816
Details
Emma
Jane Austen, 1816
[AUSTEN, Jane (1775-1817).] Emma: A Novel. London: John Murray, 1816.
First edition, uncut in original boards. Emma is the last of Austen’s works to be published during her lifetime. She began writing it on 21 January 1814 and finished in little over a year on 29 March 1815. Whereas each of her previous novels had been first published by Thomas Egerton, Emma was taken up by John Murray, a powerhouse in literary publishing whose clients included Lord Byron. The novel was published at her own expense in late December 1815 (the title being dated 1816), with profits going to Austen after payment of a 10 percent commission to the publisher. It was dedicated to the Prince Regent at the suggestion of the Prince's librarian.
Emma Woodhouse, the novel’s eponymous central character, was famously described by the author as “a heroine whom no one but myself will much like.” More so than any other of Austen’s heroines, she dominates and shapes the narrative, proactively determining the novel’s key events. Hers is a strong and striking character, whose comfortable situation grants her the freedom to be playful, though this playfulness also leads her to a series of mistakes which give the novel its main impetus. Austen’s advanced command of free indirect style, which anticipates the literary innovations of later novelists such as Flaubert and Joyce, is most apparent in this work. Gilson A8; Keynes p. 14; Sadleir I, 62d.
Three volumes, 12mo (188 x 110 mm). Half-titles in volumes two and three (without final blank or half-title in volume one), advert printed on verso of last leaf, vol. 3. Original boards (spines numbered in manuscript, no printed spine labels, backstrips well-worn, vol. 1 lacking about a third of backstrip, vol. 1 first gathering loose and upper board nearly detached); custom quarter morocco clamshell case. Provenance: E. Patteson (pencil signature to front flyleaves of all three volumes).
Jane Austen, 1816
[AUSTEN, Jane (1775-1817).] Emma: A Novel. London: John Murray, 1816.
First edition, uncut in original boards. Emma is the last of Austen’s works to be published during her lifetime. She began writing it on 21 January 1814 and finished in little over a year on 29 March 1815. Whereas each of her previous novels had been first published by Thomas Egerton, Emma was taken up by John Murray, a powerhouse in literary publishing whose clients included Lord Byron. The novel was published at her own expense in late December 1815 (the title being dated 1816), with profits going to Austen after payment of a 10 percent commission to the publisher. It was dedicated to the Prince Regent at the suggestion of the Prince's librarian.
Emma Woodhouse, the novel’s eponymous central character, was famously described by the author as “a heroine whom no one but myself will much like.” More so than any other of Austen’s heroines, she dominates and shapes the narrative, proactively determining the novel’s key events. Hers is a strong and striking character, whose comfortable situation grants her the freedom to be playful, though this playfulness also leads her to a series of mistakes which give the novel its main impetus. Austen’s advanced command of free indirect style, which anticipates the literary innovations of later novelists such as Flaubert and Joyce, is most apparent in this work. Gilson A8; Keynes p. 14; Sadleir I, 62d.
Three volumes, 12mo (188 x 110 mm). Half-titles in volumes two and three (without final blank or half-title in volume one), advert printed on verso of last leaf, vol. 3. Original boards (spines numbered in manuscript, no printed spine labels, backstrips well-worn, vol. 1 lacking about a third of backstrip, vol. 1 first gathering loose and upper board nearly detached); custom quarter morocco clamshell case. Provenance: E. Patteson (pencil signature to front flyleaves of all three volumes).
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Heather Weintraub
Specialist, Books, Manuscripts, & Archives