“FOR WHAT DO WE LIVE, BUT TO MAKE SPORT FOR OUR NEIGHBORS, AND LAUGH AT THEM IN OUR TURN?”: RARE FIRST EDITION OF AUSTEN’S PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, ONE OF THE MOST SOUGHT-AFTER OF ALL ENGLISH NOVELS, IN CONTEMPORARY BINDING

AUSTEN, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. A Novel. In Three Volumes. By the Author of “Sense and Sensibility.” London: T. Egerton, 1813. Three volumes. 12mo, contemporary three-quarter mottled calf rebacked with original spines laid down, contemporary marbled boards, original red and green morocco spine labels; housed in a custom clamshell box.

First edition of Jane Austen’s second and most popular novel, one of the most sought-after titles in English literature, in contemporary binding.

“Elizabeth’s own energy and defiance of character respond to Rousseau’s and the popular notion of the pliant, submissive female… None of her novels delighted Jane Austen more than Pride and Prejudice… She had given a rare example of fiction as a highly intelligent form… This remains her most popular and widely translated novel” (Honan, 313-20). “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). “The print run of the first edition isn’t known but is likely to have been around seven hundred copies. It sold fast enough for a second edition to appear later the same year, which was still available in 1815; a third edition came out in 1817. A conservative estimate of those sales (based on the print runs of other Austen novels) would be 1,500 copies” (Harman, Jane’s Fame, 42). Volume I of the first edition was printed by Roworth and Volumes II and III by Sidney, and their imprints appear at the end of the text of each volume. Without scarce half titles to Volumes I and II; Volume III with half title. Keynes 3. Gilson A3. Grolier 100, English 100 69. Bookseller ticket to Volume I. “Miss Austen” written in a contemporary hand above “By the Author of ‘Sense and Sensibility” on the title page of Volume I.

Light scattered foxing to interiors; loss to lower corner of B1, minor tear to lower right corner of K7 in Volume I, and upper corner of C6 in Volume II torn, none affecting text. Light wear to boards; minor loss to spine labels. An exceptional copy, most rare in contemporary binding.