[AUSTEN, Jane (1775-1817)]

Lot 137
11.12.2024 00:00UTC +00:00
Classic
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
Buyer Premiumsee on Website%
ID 1349753
Lot 137 | [AUSTEN, Jane (1775-1817)]
Estimate value
£ 10 000 – 15 000
[AUSTEN, Jane (1775-1817)]
Emma: A Novel. London: John Murray, 1816
First edition of Emma, the last of Austen’s works to be published during her lifetime. She began writing it on 21 January 1814 and finished in little over a year on 29 March 1815. Whereas each of her previous novels had been first published by Thomas Egerton, Emma was taken up by John Murray, a powerhouse in literary publishing whose clients included Lord Byron. The novel was published at her own expense in late December 1815 (the title being dated 1816), with profits going to Austen after payment of a 10 percent commission to the publisher. It was dedicated to the Prince Regent at the suggestion of the Prince's librarian.

Emma Woodhouse, the novel’s eponymous central character, was famously described by the author as ‘a heroine whom no one but myself will much like’. More so than any other of Austen’s heroines, she dominates and shapes the narrative, proactively determining the novel’s key events. Hers is a strong and striking character, whose comfortable situation grants her the freedom to be playful, though this playfulness also leads her to a series of mistakes which give the novel its main impetus. Austen’s advanced command of free indirect style, which anticipates the literary innovations of later novelists such as Flaubert and Joyce, is most apparent in this work. Gilson A8; Keynes p. 14; Sadleir I, 62d.

Three volumes, 12mo (172 x 103mm). (Lacking half-titles, title in vol. 1 somewhat stained and with short marginal tear, spotting and mostly marginal staining throughout, heavier to B5 in vol. 3, closed marginal tears in H8 of vol. 1 and C7 of vol. 3, vol. 2 with chip to margin of B10 and repaired marginal tear just into text in B12). Contemporary half calf over marbled paper boards, green morocco spine labels lettered in gilt, spines gilt (rebacked preserving backstrip, boards somewhat rubbed, ring mark to lower board of vol. 1). Provenance: H. Sale’s Circulating Library, Shipston (Henry Sale, chemist and bookseller at Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire, d.1872).
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