FIRST COLLECTED AND FIRST ILLUSTRATED EDITION OF THE NOVELS OF JANE AUSTEN, 1833, THE COPY OF PRIME MINISTER SIR ROBERT PEEL

AUSTEN, Jane. Novels. London: Richard Bentley, 1833. Five volumes. Small octavo, contemporary marbled boards rebacked in later calf-gilt, green spine labels. $38,000.

Important first collected and first illustrated edition of the novels of Jane Austen, "mother of the English 19th-century novel" (Kunitz & Haycraft), printed from the plates of Bentley's "Standard Novel" editions of 1833, each volume with engraved frontispiece illustration and vignette title page, finely bound. "Very rare in any state" (Gilson). With the owner signature in each volume of Robert Peel, who twice served as Prime Minister around the time of this edition's publication.

"The fact that [Austen] wrote comparatively little and that that little is almost always of the highest quality has resulted in the unique distinction which her reputation now enjoys, that she is the only author of her period whose works can be read, and are read, today with delight in their entirety" (Baugh, et al., 1206). Bentley's first collected edition of Austen's novels includes Sense and Sensibility (originally published 1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Emma (1815), Mansfield Park (1814) and Northanger Abbey and Persuasion (both published posthumously in 1818). "The unconscious charm of the domestic atmosphere of the stories, and the delicate subsatirical humor which pervades them, have won her the admiration, even to fanaticism, of innumerable readers" (DNB). When this edition first appeared, with its memoir of the author by Henry Austen, it triggered an interest in Jane Austen's works which has never flagged since. Bound without half titles except for Pride and Prejudice, which has Spottiswoode listed as printer on the verso. Gilson D6. Keynes 27. Sadleir 3735a. Each volume is signed "The Rt. Honbl Sir Robert Peel B.", in Peel's own hand, and three of the five volumes contain his bookplate. Peel is remembered as one of the most important British statesmen of the 19th century. During his long and productive career, during which he twice served as Prime Minister, he helped to shape the Tory party and formed the powerful Conservative party, while scoring a number of foreign policy successes, including the negotiation of the Oregon Territory and Maine boundaries with the United States. Additionally, he is considered the founder of modern policing with his formation of the London Metropolitan Police in 1829; the word "bobby" for policemen comes from them being known as "Bobbie's [i.e. Robert Peel's] men." Later bookplates of American artist Frederic Clay Bartlett.

Moderate foxing to frontispieces and engraved titles only; text generally fine. A most desirable set of the rare first collected edition, with a fine English provenance.