[AUSTEN, Jane (1775-1817).] Sense and Sensibility. London: for the author by C. Roworth and published by T. Egerton, 1811.

"The family of Dashwood had been long settled in Sussex..."

First edition of Jane Austen’s first published novel, the distinguished Stanley-Bishop-Benz copy, in contemporary calf and marbled boards. Originally titled "Elinor and Marianne," Austen's story of the Dashwood sisters and their financial and romantic travails following the death of their father was written in the late 1790s. Austen had struggled to publish her earlier work but eventually found success with the help of her brother's Oxford connection to Thomas Egerton. Her wit and humor charmed readers; from the sharply drawn Fanny, who proclaims, much to the detriment of the Dashwood women, "that if you observe, people always live for ever when there is any annuity to be paid them," to the painfully and perpetually agonized Marianne, "who would have thought herself very inexcusable had she been able to sleep at all the first night after parting from Willoughby. She would have been ashamed to look her family in the face the next morning, had she not risen from her bed in more need of repose than when she lay down in it..." Printed in an edition of “only 1000 copies or even less,” it sold out in less than two years. The author would write delightedly to her brother Francis (3 July 1813): “You will be glad to hear that every copy of Sense and Sensibility is sold and that it has brought me £140 beside the copyright, if that should ever be of any value.”

This copy was first in the collection of Sir John Thomas Stanley, 1st Baron Stanley of Alderley, who was a friend of Austen's brother Edward. It is recorded that they spent time together as young English Grand Tourists in Neuchâtel, Switzerland in August of 1786 (see Deirdre Le Faye's Chronology of Jane Austen and her Family). Stanley's wife was Maria Josepha Stanley (née Holroyd), a letter-writer and liberal advocate, described as "worldly and endlessly inquisitive" and "gifted with wit" (ODNB)—perhaps she was a reader of this Austen, as well. Gilson A1.

Three volumes, 12mo (169 x 110mm). With half-titles and terminal blanks. (Some minor spotting.) Contemporary half calf over marbled boards (rebacked with original spines laid down, first gatherings of vol. 1 slightly sprung). Custom chemises and morocco pull-off box. Provenance: Sir John Thomas Stanley, 7th Baronet and 1st Baron Stanley, Alderley Park,1766-1850 (armorial bookplate) – Cortlandt F. Bishop, 1870-1935 (bookplate; his sale, Anderson Galleries, 5 April 1938, lot 159) – Doris L. Benz, 1907-1984 (bookplate; her sale, Christie's New York, 16 November 1984, lot 25).