[AUSTEN, Jane (1775-1817)]. Mansfield Park: A Novel. London: T. Egerton, 1814.

First edition of Austen’s third published work, in a contemporary binding; "a milestone in the English novel" (Wiltshire, p.65). Written between February 1811 and June 1813, Mansfield Park was the first of her works to be conceived and wholly written at Chawton. Published in May 1814 in a run of around 1250 copies, the first edition was sold out by November of the same year. The sale of the book was on a commission basis, with Austen retaining the copyright.

Compared with her previous novel, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park is "evidently the work of an older, maturer, woman" (p.59), in which "for the first and only time in her novels, Jane Austen continuously allows the narrative to move freely in and out of the consciousnesses of a whole range of characters" (p.61). Fanny Price, the heroine of Mansfield Park, is the antithesis of Elizabeth Bennet, her counterpart in Pride and Prejudice. Where Elizabeth is daring and irreverent, Fanny is defined by her modesty and awkwardness, by her compliance and constancy. Yet it is these virtues for which Fanny is rewarded at the novel’s conclusion. Gilson A6; Keynes p. 11; Sadleir I, 62c; Wiltshire, The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen, 1997.

12mo (175 x 104mm). Half-titles. (Some spotting; e2 in vol. 1 with tear extending through about a dozen words and repaired with tape; vol. 2 without o4, the final blank.) Contemporary half calf over marbled boards (rebacked, with original spines laid down, some old restoration evident; tips renewed).