Emma: A Novel. By the Author of “Pride and Prejudice.”

AUSTEN, Jane.

Item Number: 135414

London: Printed for John Murray, 1816.

First edition of the final novel published during Austen’s lifetime, one of only 2000 examples. Small octavo, three volumes, elaborately bound in full crushed morocco by Riviere & Son, gilt titles and tooling to the spine in six compartments within raised gilt bands, triple gilt ruling to the front and rear panels, gilt turn-ins and inner dentelles, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. With the half-titles supplied to volumes I and II, which are commonly not found. From the library of American industrialist and notable book collector William Hartman Woodin with his bookplate to volume I. In fine condition. An exceptional example of one of the most highly coveted titles in English literature.

After many publishing delays, Austen decided to self-finance the publication of Emma, paying printer John Murray a 10% commission and retaining the remaining profits. "Emma was the fourth and last novel which Jane Austen published in her lifetime. When it was written the author was at the height of her powers, and she wrote the book rapidly and surely, encouraged by the success of her previous novels to express herself with confidence in the way peculiarly her own" (Rosenbach 29:24). "Jane Austen's fourth novel has a profundity similar to that of Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility, only more elusive since Emma's character is far more subtle than Elizabeth or Marianne's… Austen's self-knowledge, her love of detail… [helped her] to create a proud, self-willed, self-guided, vexing and outrageous Emma and her greatest novel" (Honan, Jane Austen, 356-364). The novel has been adapted into several films, televised programs, and plays including the 1996 period film of the same name starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Alan Cumming, Toni Collette, Ewan McGregor, and Jeremy Northam.