Northanger Abbey: and Persuasion.

AUSTEN, Jane.

Item Number: 135449

London: John Murray, 1818.

First edition, one of 1750 copies of the last of Jane Austen’s novels to be published. Small octavo, four volumes elaborately bound in full crushed morocco by Riviere & Son with 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 biographical note by Austen’s brother Henry, providing the first account of Jane Austen’s life and the first public acknowledgement of Jane Austen being the author of all her novels. From the library of American industrialist and notable book collector William Hartman Woodin with his bookplate to Vol. I. In near fine condition. A stunning example of this exceptional rarity.

Although Northanger Abbey was the first of Jane Austen's novels to be completed for publication in 1803, its was not published until after her death in 1817 together with her final novel Persuasion. "In a flash of mischief the author has put two rogues of like aptitudes together… In the 20th century [Persuasion] has been felt to be her most emotionally powerful work… Northanger Abbey does make serious points about social education and … became a running debate… over the real values of fiction" (Honan, Jane Austen, 385, 139).