by Jane Austen
This obviously makes no sense as it stands; and to no less a light than Macaulay belongs the credit of putting it right.
Some of his old friends (says Sir G. O. Trevelyan in his Life of Macaulay) may remember how he prided himself on a correction of his own in the first page of Persuasion which he maintained to be worthy of Bentley, and which undoubtedly fulfils all the conditions required to establish the credit of an emendation; for, without the alteration of a word, or even of a letter, it turns into perfectly intelligible common-sense a passage which has puzzled, or which ought to have puzzled, two generations of Miss Austen’s readers.
And in a footnote, Sir George says: —
A slight change in the punctuation effects all that is required. According to Macaulay the sentence was intended by its author to run thus: ‘There any unwelcome sensations, arising from domestic affairs, changed naturally into pity and contempt as he turned over the almost endless creations of the last century; and there, if every other leaf were powerless, he could read his own history with an interest which never failed. This was the page at which his favourite volume opened.’
Whether or not the emendation would have satisfied Bentley the critic, it eventually satisfied Bentley the publisher, who adopted it in his later editions.
2. Chapter i, a page or two further on, all editions read: —
Be it known, then, that Sir Walter, like a good father (having met with one or two private disappointments in very unreasonable applications), prided himself on remaining single for his dear daughter’s sake. For one daughter, his eldest, he would really have given up anything, which he had not been very much tempted to do. . . . His two other children were of very inferior value.
This is one more instance of a misplaced apostrophe, for, as Dr. Verrall pointed out in the Cambridge Observer, what Jane Austen must have written is ‘for his dear daughters’ sake.’ Even if the antithesis implied in the next sentence did not demand this, it is obvious that the correct Sir Walter would never have allowed himself to state that he remained single for the sake of one daughter only. Indeed, we have a proof of this in Chapter v, when Elizabeth says: ‘And as to my father, I really should not have thought that he who has kept himself single so long for our sakes need be suspected now.’
3. Chapter xxii: Bentley, following the first edition, reads: —
She was earnestly begged to return and dine, and give them all the rest of the day, but her spirits had been so long exerted that at present she felt unequal to move and fit only for home, where she might be sure of being as silent as she chose.
Promising to be with them the whole of the following morning, therefore, she closed the fatigues of the present by a toilsome walk to Camden Place, &c.
The Hampshire and Winchester Editions read ‘more,’ and this seems likely to be correct; for those acquainted with the road to Camden Place will know how inadvisable it would be for anyone ‘unequal to move’ to attempt it.
4. Chapter xxiii: Nearly all editions read: ‘The weather was unfavourable, and she had grieved over the rain on her friend’s account.’
There was no particular ‘friend’ in the case, as Anne had promised to spend her morning with the Musgroves, and it seems certain we should read ‘on her friends’ account.’
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The following list of books is confined to the main editions of the novels and, with a few exceptions, to books dealing entirely, or almost entirely, with the author. It does not attempt to include all the cheap reprints of the novels, nor all the histories of English literature, &c., which make mention of Jane Austen, nor the innumerable magazine articles that have been devoted to her and her writings. Many of these last, however, will be found recorded in the bibliographies included in Mr. Goldwin Smith’s and Mr. Oscar Fay Adams’s volumes.
1811 [Oct.] Sense and Sensibility. A novel. In three volumes.
By a Lady. London: printed for the author, by C. Roworth, Bell-yard, Temple-bar; and published by T. Egerton, Whitehall, 1811. 12mo.
1813 [Jan.] Pride and Prejudice. A novel. In three volumes.
By the author of Sense and Sensibility. London: printed for T. Egerton, Military Library, Whitehall, 1813. 12mo.
[Vol. I was printed by C. Roworth, Bell-yard, Temple-bar; Vols. II and III by G. Sidney, Northumberland Street, Strand.]
1813 [Oct.] Pride and Prejudice. A novel. In three volumes.
By the author of Sense and Sensibility. Second edition. London: printed for T. Egerton, Military Library, Whitehall, 1813. 12mo.
[Printers as in first edition.]
1813 [Oct.] Sense and Sensibility. A novel. In three volumes.
By the author of Pride and Prejudice. The second edition. London: printed for the author, by C. Roworth, Bell-yard, Temple-bar; and published by T. Egerton, Whitehall, 1813. 12mo.
1814 [May] Mansfield Park. A novel. In three volumes. By
the author of Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice. London: printed for T. Egerton, Military Library, Whitehall, 1814. 12mo.
[Vols. I and III were printed by G. Sidney, Northumberland Street, Strand; Vol. II by C. Roworth, Bell-yard, Temple-bar.]
1815 [Dec.] Emma. A novel. In three volumes. By the author
of Pride and Prejudice, &c., &c. London: printed for John Murray, 1816. 12mo.
[Vols. I and II were printed by C. Roworth, Bell-yard, Temple-bar; Vol. III by J. Moyes, Greville Street, Hatton Garden, London.]
1816 [Feb.] Mansfield Park. A novel. In three volumes. By
the author of Pride and Prejudice. Second edition. London: printed for J. Murray, Albemarle Street, 1816. 12mo.
[Vols. I and III were printed by J. Moyes, Greville Street, Hatton Garden, London; Vol. II by C. Roworth, Bell-yard, Temple-bar.]
1817 Pride and Prejudice. A novel. In two volumes.
By the author of Sense and Sensibility, &c. Third edition. London: printed for T. Egerton, Military Library, Whitehall, 1817. 12mo.
[Printed by C. Roworth, Bell-yard, Temple-bar.]
1818 Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. By the author
of Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, &c. With a biographical notice of the author. In four volumes. London: John Murray, Albemarle Street, 1818. 12mo.
[Vols. I and II, containing Northanger Abbey, were printed by C. Roworth, Bell-yard, Temple-bar; Vols. III and IV, containing Persuasion, by T. Davison, Lombard Street, Whitefriars, London.]
1824 L’Abbaye de Northanger; traduit de l’anglais de
Jeanne Austen, auteur d’Orgueil et Préjugé, du Parc de Mansfield, de la Famille Elliott, de la Nouvelle Emma, &c. Par Mme. Hyacinthe de F.* * * * [Ferrières]. 3 tom. Paris. Pigoreau. 12mo.
[There is a short ‘Notice biographique’ taken from the English edition.]
1833 Novels by Miss Jane Austen. ‘Standard Novels’
series. Five volumes. London: Richard Bentley.
8vo. [This series contains a set of steel engravings — two to each novel, a frontispiece and a vignette after Pickering. Sense and Sensibility contains a biographical notice (by Henry Austen), which includes a few facts not mentioned in the preface to the original edition of Northanger Abbey.]
1870 A Memoir of Jane Austen. By her nephew, J. E.
Austen-Leigh. London: Richard Bentley & Son. vo.
1871 A Memoir of Jane Austen. By her nephew, J. E.
Austen Leigh. Second edition; to which is added Lady Susan and fragments of two other unfinished tales by Miss Austen. London: Richard Bentley & Son. vo.
1880 Jane Austen and her Works. By Sarah Tytler.
London: Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co. pp. viii-386. 8vo.
[This contains a Life drawn from the Memoir, and a résumé of each of the novels.]
1882 Jane Austen’s Novels. Steventon Edition. Five
volumes. London: Richard Bentley & Son. 8vo.
1883 A Book of Sibyls. By Anne Isabella Thackeray.
London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. vi-229. 8vo.
[‘Jane Austen,’ p-229.]
1884 Letters of Jane Austen. Edited, with an introduction
and critical remarks, by Edward, Lord Brabourne. Two volumes. London: Richard Bentley & Son.
[This includes: (1) a series of letters from Jane to Cassandra; (2) letters from Jane to Fanny Knight; (3) letters from Jane to Anna Austen (Mrs. B. Lefroy); and (4) two letters from Cassandra to Fanny Knight, just after Jane’s death.]
1885 Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith,
Elder & Co. ‘Jane Austen,’ by L[eslie]. S[tephen].
[This account, based on the Memoir and the Letters (which latter are said to be trivial and to give no new facts), is accurate: except in stating that Jane was the youngest of seven children, and that she went to Castle Square, Southampton, in 1805.]
1886 Letters to Dead Authors. By Andrew Lang. London:
Longmans, Green & Co. 8vo.
[‘To Jane Austen,’ p-85.]
1888 Chapters from Jane Austen. Edited by Oscar Fay
Adams. Boston: Lee & Shepard.
1889 Jane Austen. By S. F. Malden [Mrs. Charles Malden].
‘Eminent Women’ series. London: W. H. Allen. vo.
[Much space is devoted to an abstract of the novels.]
1890 Life of Jane Austen. By Goldwin Smith. ‘Great
Writers’ series. London: Walter Scott. p-v. 8vo.
[Contains a bibliography compiled by J. P. Anderson.]
1891 The Story of Jane Austen’s Life. By Oscar Fay
Adams. Chicago: A. D. McClurg & Co. pp. v-277. 8vo.
[Includes a bibliography.]
1892 The Novels of Jane Austen. Edited by R. Brimley
Johnson; with illustrations by William Cubit Cooke, and ornaments by F. C. Tilney. Ten volumes. London: J. M. Dent & Co.
[The first volume of Sense and Sensibility contains an account of Jane Austen, pp. xi-xxxi. This was the first really independent issue of the novels — Bentley’s edition having previously held the field. Mr. Johnson, as a rule, followed the text of the latest edition which appeared in the author’s lifetime. Unfortunately, his printers introduced a good many new misprints of their own.]
1894 Pride and Prejudice. With a preface by George
Saintsbury, and illustrations by Hugh Thomson. London: George Allen. pp. xxvii-476. 8vo.
1895 Charades, etc. Written a Hundred Tears Ago. By
Jane Austen and her family. London: Spottiswoode & Co. vo.
1895 Duologues and Scenes from the Novels of Jane Austen,
arranged and adapted for Drawing-room Performance. By Rosina Filippi (Mrs. Dowson); with illustrations by Miss Fletcher. London: J. M. Dent & Co. pp. xv-139. 8vo.
1895-7 Jane Austen’s Novels. With illustrations by Hugh
Thomson [but Pride and Prejudice is illustrated by C. E. Brock] and introductions by Austin Dobson. Five volumes. London: Macmillan & Co. 8vo.
[These volumes were afterwards (1902-4) reprinted and issued in Macmillan’s ‘Illustrated Pocket Classics.’]
1897 Essays on the Novel: as illustrated by Scott and Miss
Austen. By A. A. Jack. London: Macmillan & Co.
[‘Miss Austen,’ p-297.]
1898 The Novels of Jane Austen. Winchester Edition.
Ten volumes. London: Grant Richards. 8vo.
[Subsequently, in 1906, this edition was re-issued with a new title-page by John Grant of Edinburgh.]
1898 Emma. With an introduction by Joseph Jacobs,
and illustrations by Chris Hammond. London: George Allen. pp. xxvi-504. 8vo.
1898 The Novels of Jane Austen. Edited by R. Brimley
Johnson; with coloured illustrations by C. E. and H. M. Brock. London: J. M. Dent & Co.
[This edition seems to be printed from the same type as that used in the 1892 edition. Many of the obvious misprints have been corrected; but two following chapters in Mansfield Park are still numbered xxxii, throwing out the numeration of all subsequent chapters.]
1899 Jane Austen: Her Contemporaries and Herself. An
essay in criticism. By Walter Herries Pollock. London: Longmans, Green & Co. vo.
[The contemporaries are Miss Burney, Miss Edgeworth, and Miss Ferrier.]
1899 Sense and Sensibility. With an introduction by J.
Jacobs, and illustrations by Chris Hammond. London: George Allen, pp. xxviii-389. 8vo.
1899 The Works of Jane Austen. With coloured frontispieces
by H. M. Brock. The Temple Edition. Ten volumes. London: J. M. Dent & Co. 8vo.
1899 Catherine Morland. [sc. Northanger Abbey.] Roman
traduit de l’anglais. Par F. Fénélon. Published in La Revue blanche. Paris. vo.
1900 Pride and Prejudice. With an introduction and notes
by E. V. Lucas. Methuen’s ‘Little Library.’ Two volumes. London: Methuen & Co.
Pride and Prejudice. Illustrated by Chris Hammond;
with an introduction by William Keith Leask. London: The Gresham Publishing Co. 8vo. n.d.
1901 Northanger Abbey. With an introduction by E. V.
Lucas. Methuen’s ‘Little Library.’ London: Methuen & Co. pp. xiv-273. 8vo.
1902 The Novels of Jane Austen. Hampshire Edition. Five
volumes. London: R. Brimley Johnson. 8vo.
[There is a publisher’s note at the beginning of Pride and Prejudice, and each novel contains two specially drawn end-papers illustrating its topographical details. The text differs occasionally from that of the novels edited by Mr. Brimley Johnson.]
1902 Jane Austen: Her Homes and Her Friends. By
Constance Hill. Illustrations by Ellen G. Hill, and reproductions in photogravure, &c. London: John Lane. pp. viii-279. 8vo.
[The book contains much topographical detail.]
1904 Pride and Prejudice. Illustrated by Chris Hammond.
London: Blackie & Son. pp. viii-392. 8vo.
1905 The Works of Jane Austen. ‘Sense and Sensibility.’
Introduction by Sidney Lee. Methuen’s Standard Library. London: Methuen & Co. pp. vii-247. 8vo.
[It is stated that the text is taken from that of the second edition. The other novels in this series do not seem to have been published up to the present.]
1905 Jane Austen and her Times. By G. E. Mitton. With
twenty-one illustrations. London: Methuen & Co. pp. viii-334. 8vo.
1906 Jane Austen’s Novels. With introduction by R.
Brimley Johnson. Everyman’s Library. Five volumes. London: J. M. Dent & Co. 8vo.
1906 Jane Austen’s Sailor Brothers: being the Adventures
of Sir Francis Austen, G.C.B., Admiral of the Fleet, and Rear-Admiral Charles Austen. By J. H. Hubback and Edith C. Hubback. London: John Lane. pp. xiv-294. 8vo.
[Four hitherto unpublished letters of Jane to her brothers are given.]
1907 The Works of Jane Austen — I. ‘Emma.’ With an
introduction by E. V. Lucas. The World’s Classics. Oxford: Henry Frowde. pp. xv-459. 8vo.
1907-9 [The Novels of Jane Austen.] With coloured illustrations
by C. E. Brock. ‘The Series of English Idylls.’ Five volumes. London: J. M. Dent & Co. 8vo.
1908-10 The Novels of Jane Austen. With general introduction
and notes by R. Brimley Johnson. Coloured illustrations and end-pieces by A. Wallis Mills. The Saint Martin’s Illustrated Library of Standard Authors. Ten volumes. London: Chatto & Windus. 8vo.
1909 Jane Austen and Her Country-house Comedy. By
W. H. Helm. London: Eveleigh Nash. pp. x-259. 8vo.
[A critical appreciation. The frontispiece is an imaginary portrait of Jane Austen.]
1910 Pride and Prejudice. Abridged and edited by
Mrs. Frederick Boas. English Literature for Schools. Cambridge: at the University Press. pp. xix-211. 8vo.
[The editor’s object is to present the book in a form suitable for school reading. Some notes are given.]
1910 Encyclopædia Britannica. Eleventh Edition. Cambridge:
at the University Press.<
br />
[‘Jane Austen,’ by E. V. L[ucas], vol. ii. p-7.]
[This is an accurate account, except that it contains the same two mistakes as those in the Dictionary of National Biography.]
1911 Essays and Studies. By members of the English
Association. Oxford: at the Clarendon Press.
[‘Jane Austen,’ by A. C. Bradley, vol. ii. p-36.]
1911 Chawton Manor and its Owners. A family history.
By William Austen Leigh and Montagu George Knight. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. viii-219. 4to.
[Chapter VII.—’The Austens.’]
1912 Pride and Prejudice. Edited with introduction, &c.
by K. M. Metcalfe. Oxford University Press: Henry Frowde. pp. xxxii-403. 8vo.
[A scholarly edition: the text is that of the first edition, except in a few instances, where a note is given. The title-pages of the three volumes are reproduced in facsimile. Appendix on social customs in J. A.’s day; criticisms, notes, &c.]
1912 Jane Austen. By Lady Margaret Sackville. ‘The
Regent Library.’ London: Herbert & Daniel. pp. xvi-471. 8vo.
[Long selections from the novels, with an introduction and some appreciations.]
1913 Old Friends and New Fancies: an Imaginary Sequel
to the Novels of Jane Austen. By Sybil G. Brinton. London: Holden & Hardingham. pp. viii-384. 8vo.
1913 Jane Austen: a Criticism and Appreciation. By
Percy Fitzgerald, M.A., F.S.A. London: Jarrold & Sons. vo.
[The frontispiece is a reproduction of a bust of Jane Austen executed by Mr. Fitzgerald.]
Winchester Cathedral — Austen’s final resting place
The author’s grave