Books

London: J M Dent and Company, 1892 A very good to near fine set of the limited large paper edition of Austen's novels illustrated by William C Cooke. 150 sets were printed, of which 100 were for England and 50 for America. This set is no 66. This edition, edited by Reginald Brimley Johnson is the first Austen edition with commentary, and the first volume of Sense and Sensibility contains a biography of the author. The set originally belonged to Andrew Pears of Spring Grove in Isleworth and has his armorial bookplate with some shelf notes to front pastedown endpaper of each volume. Andrew Pears was a member of the Pears soap family, being a great grandson of the inventor of the transparent soap, and was a Liberal politician. He was responsible for the renovation and enlargement of Spring Grove. The set is bound in a light brown buckram cloth with gilt titles to spines. The spines and board edges have darkened and the boards have some colour variation. All are sound, clean and bright…

Sense and Sensibility is a novel by Jane Austen, published in 1811. It was her first published work, which she wrote under the pseudonym 'A Lady'. The story follows the Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne, as they navigate love, romance, and societal expectations.