The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Jane Austen 8 Volume Paperback Set

by Jane Austen, Peter Sabor (Editor), Barbara Benedict (Editor)

The first modern, fully annotated edition of the works of Jane Austen is here published complete in eight volumes. Six volumes on the published novels - Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion - are accompanied by two devoted to Austen's manuscripts, her brilliant juvenile writing and the unpublished work of her adulthood. Each is edited by leading Austen scholars, and includes comprehensive information on the circumstances of the creation and publication of the work concerned, and its critical reception, together with textual and explanatory notes. Together these volumes complete the picture - as far as we now have it - of the work of one of the greatest, as well as best-loved, British novelists.

Includes all 3 volumes of Juvenilia, plus Later Manuscripts, comprising:

Lady Susan
The Watsons
Sanditon
Jane Austen on Fiction ("To Mrs. Hunter of Norwich," "Letters on Fiction to Anna Lefroy," "Plan of a Novel, according to hints from various quarters," "Opinions of Mansfield Park," "Opinions of Emma")
Poems and Charades
Appendices, including "Sir Charles Grandison," "Prayers," "Attributed poems," and "Family poems."

5058 pages, Paperback

Published May 30, 2013

About the author

Jane Austen was an English novelist known primarily for her six novels, which implicitly interpret, critique, and comment upon the English landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots often explore the dependence of women on marriage for the pursuit of favourable social standing and economic security. Her works are an implicit critique of the novels of sensibility of the second half of the 18th century and are part of the transition to 19th-century literary realism. Her deft use of social commentary, realism and biting irony have earned her acclaim among critics and scholars.

The anonymously published Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1816), were a modest success but brought her little fame in her lifetime. She wrote two other novels—Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, both published posthumously in 1817—and began another, eventually titled Sanditon, but died before its completion. She also left behind three volumes of juvenile writings in manuscript, the short epistolary novel Lady Susan, and the unfinished novel The Watsons.
Since her death Austen's novels have rarely been out of print. A significant transition in her reputation occurred in 1833, when they were republished in Richard Bentley's Standard Novels series (illustrated by Ferdinand Pickering and sold as a set). They gradually gained wide acclaim and popular readership. In 1869, fifty-two years after her death, her nephew's publication of A Memoir of Jane Austen introduced a compelling version of her writing career and supposedly uneventful life to an eager audience. Her work has inspired a large number of critical essays and has been included in many literary anthologies. Her novels have also inspired many films, including 1940's Pride and Prejudice, 1995's Sense and Sensibility and 2016's Love & Friendship.