Books

Early edition. Small octavo. Handsome contemporary tan half calf over marbled boards; the spine with five raised bands, compartments richly decorated in gilt, and with titles in gilt. Marbling to page edges. Marbled endpapers. Engraved frontispiece and additional engraved title page with vignette illustration. (xvi), 331, (1)pp. A very good copy, the binding square and firm with a touch of wear to the joints. The contents with a very slight crack to the front hinge between the front pastedown and front free endpaper, a faint minor crease to the bottom margin of the first few pages, and some light scattered foxing to the preliminary pages are otherwise in very good order. A lovely copy. An early edition of Austen's first novel, in an attractive contemporary binding. Following the posthumous publication of Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, the only British printings of Austen's novels were as part of 'Bentley's Standard Novel' series until James Edward Austen-Leigh's biography of his aunt in 1870 renewed interest in her work. Bentley first issued an edition of Sense and Sensibility in 1833, following the novel's initial publication in 1811. This Bentley edition also includes a memoir of the author at the start of the volume.

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.