Feb 20, 2020 - Sale 2530

Sale 2530 - Lot 191

Price Realized: $ 81,250
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 30,000 - $ 40,000
AUSTEN, JANE. Sense and Sensibility: A Novel. In Three Volumes. By A Lady. 3 volumes. 175 x 105 mm. Half-titles. Final blanks (that in vol. 1 showing faint offsetting from title-page of vol. 1 of a copy of Emma bound upside down; with blank N8 in volume 2 and blank O8 in volume 3). 12mo, period 1/2 tan calf, spines ruled in gilt, two morocco lettering pieces, front cover detached on vol. 1, both covers detached on vol. 2, spines chipped with top half of vol. 3 perished; small area of worming to bottom blank margin to approximately last dozen leaves of vol. 2, uneven browning and spotting, heaviest to endleaves. London: Printed for the author by C. Roworth and published by T. Egerton, 1811

Additional Details

first edition of the author's first published novel and the rarest of her six major works. The first version of Sense and Sensibility is known to have been written about 1795 in the form of letters. It was then revised and prepared for the press in the first year of Jane Austen's residence at Chawton (1809-1810). "Probably it consisted of only 1000 copies or even less, and this would account for the fact that Sense and Sensibility is so much the rarest of the novels at the present day" (Keynes). The first edition sold out in less than two years with the second edition appearing in 1813. Gilson A1; Sadlier 62b; Keynes 1.