(Complete Novels) Pride and Prejudice / Sense and Sensibility / Mansfield Park / Emma / Northanger Abbey / Persuasion. 1901-1903. 6 vols in 5. Introductions by Austin Dobson; illustrated by Charles Brock and Hugh Thomson.

Description

Early rebinding in polished half red calf, pale red linen to boards. Low raised bands, gilt decor, and gilt lettering to spines. 8vos. A couple of minor marks to front board of Pride and Prejudice; small dark mark to rear board of Emma; minor abrasion to front board of Sense and Sensibility at bottom corner. Faint sunning to spines and to top front board of Sense and Sensibility. Top edges gilt; fore-edges untrimmed. Minor foxing to page edges. Endpapers marbled in pale red. Some browning to endpapers. Tiny bookseller’s label to inside each front board: Phillipson & Golder, Chester. Brief bookseller’s pencil inscrip. to rear blank endpage in most vols. Mild foxing, mostly confined to prelims. All vols are 1901 except Northanger Abbey and Persuasion (bound together; 1902) and Pride and Prejudice (1903). All vols are illustrated by Hugh Thomson, except for Pride and Prejudice, which has illustrations by Charles Brock. Thomson and Brock, together with Chris Hammond, produced the defining illustrations of Austen’s works for the 1890s and early 20th century. Thomson’s ‘playful and intriguing’ illustrations were the first to historicise the novels, showing characters in Regency costumes ‘amid appropriate “period” furniture’ and offering ‘delicate and charming recreations of a vanished grace’; Brock’s were distinguished by a ‘theatrical and often comic dynamism’ (Carroll & Wiltshire, 2009, ‘Jane Austen, Illustrated’, in A Companion to Jane Austen, ed. Tuite & Johnson, pp. 88, 93). A handsome set. Robust packaging. Tracking can be added to overseas orders on request. Used books are exempt from USA tariffs.