Sense and Sensibility: A Novel.

BY A LADY. [AUSTEN, Jane].

$17,500.00

Item Number: 135337

London: Printed for the Author and Published by T. Egerton, 1813.

Second edition of the first novel published during Austen’s lifetime. Small octavo, three volumes 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. Title and half-title pages supplied in facsimile. Bookplate to the pastedown of Vol. I. In near fine condition. A very attractive example of this desirable rarity.

Austen's first published novel, Sense and Sensibility follows the story of the three Dashwood sisters as they must move with their widowed mother from the estate on which they grew up, Norland Park. The novel, which sold out its first print run of 750 copies in the middle of 1813, marked a success for its author. It had a second print run later that year. It was the first Austen title to be republished in England after her death, and the first illustrated Austen book produced in Britain, in Richard Bentley's Standard Novels series of 1833. Austen paid to have the book published and paid the publisher a commission on sales. The cost of publication was more than a third of Austen's annual household income but she made a profit of £140 on the first edition, which sold all 750 printed copies by July 1813. The novel has been in continuous publication since 1811, and has many times been illustrated, excerpted, abridged, and adapted for stage, film, and television.