JANE AUSTEN’S NOVELS, ILLUSTRATED AND HANDSOMELY BOUND

AUSTEN, Jane. Novels. London: Waverley, [circa 1910]. Six volumes. Octavo, modern three-quarter red morocco gilt, raised bands, marbled boards. $5500.

Later edition of Austen’s novels, including a memoir of the author by her nephew, J.E. Austen Leigh, and a selection of her letters, with a frontispiece and one additional illustration in each volume (for a total of 12 illustrations), handsomely bound.

"Generations of readers have marveled at the modernity of her work… She is the mother of the English 19th-century novel as Scott is the father of it" (Kunitz & Haycraft, 23). "The fact that [Austen] wrote comparatively little and that that little is almost always of the highest quality has resulted in the unique distinction which her reputation now enjoys, that she is the only author of her period whose works can be read, and are read, today with delight in their entirety" (Baugh et al., 1206). "The unconscious charm of the domestic atmosphere of the stories, and the delicate subsatirical humor which pervades them, have won her the admiration, even to fanaticism, of innumerable readers" (DNB). Contains Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, and the unfinished novels "Lady Susan" and "The Watsons," as well as Austen Leigh's memoir of his aunt and a selection of the author's letters. Austen's novels were originally published in 1811-18; the present edition is based on an edition by Roberts Brothers published in 1892.

A lovely set in fine condition.