Pride and Prejudice: A Novel.

by Austen, Jane

$140,000 · Offered by Biblio

First edition

London: Printed for T. Egerton, 1813. First editions of all three volumes of Jane Austen’s masterpiece, her bestselling book during her lifetime which remains a landmark of English literature. 12mo, three volumes bound in full mottled calf with gilt titles and elaborate gilt tooling to the spine, double gilt ruling and botanical gilt scrolling to the front and rear panels, gilt turn-ins, all edges speckled black. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box with gilt titles and elaborate gilt tooling to the spine. A very attractive example of this significant work in English literature. Originally titled First Impressions, Pride and Prejudice was written between October 1796 and August 1797 when Jane Austen was not yet twenty-one, the same age, in fact, as her fictional heroine Elizabeth Bennet. After an early rejection by the publisher Cadell who had not even read it, Austen s novel was finally bought by Egerton in 1812 for £110. It was published in late January 1813 in a small edition of approximately 1500 copies and sold for 18 shillings in boards. “The size of the edition is not known… perhaps 1500 copies… The first edition was sold off very rapidly and a second one was printed in the same year” (Keynes, 8). A novel of manners, the story follows the character development of young Elizabeth Bennet, an independent young lady who learns about the repercussions of hasty judgments and comes to appreciate the difference between superficial goodness and actual goodness. “Elizab

• Publisher: Printed for T. Egerton
• Year: 1813
• Edition: First Edition
• Printing: first
• Binding: hardcover

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