“Relatively Few Copies Of The 1832-33 Philadelphia Editions Are Known To Survive”: Very Scarce 1833 First American Edition Of Austen’s First Novel, Sense And Sensibility, In Original Boards 2. AUSTEN, Jane. Sense and Sensibility: A Novel. Philadelphia, 1833. Two volumes. 12mo, original drab boards sympathetically rebacked, uncut, custom clamshell box. $35,000. Click for more info First American edition—an edition of only 1250 copies—of Jane Austen’s first novel, on “the twin themes of prudence and benevolence, reason and passion, head and heart, or sense and sensibility,” in original boards. Sense and Sensibility “does brightly respond to an interesting religious and ethical debate over the philosophy of sentiment… A debate was in full swing by the 1790s when novel after novel took up the twin themes of prudence and benevolence, reason and passion, head and heart, or sense and sensibility” (Honan, Jane Austen, 275-77). “It may be... that the availability of London editions in North America satisfied early local demand for Austen’s novels, but, whether or not that is so, no… American edition [other than Emma (1816)] is known before the issue of all six titles, each in two volumes, by Carey & Lea of Philadelphia in 1832-33... Relatively few copies of the 1832-33 Philadelphia editions are known to survive; one good result of the lack of appreciation of these editions’ rarity…has been that most copies survive in original binding” (Gilson, 97-98). “The most striking feature of the first American editions is the amount of textual variation,” including in spelling, punctuation, and the elimination of God from vulgar exclamations (Gilson, 98). With leaf of publisher’s ads preceding title page in each volume. Gilson B6. Keynes 14. Early owner ink signature. Text professionally cleaned, with some faint evidence of foxing, light wear to boards. A very good uncut copy in original boards of this scarce and desirable edition. February 2022 – 4 – Bauman Rare Books
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