NORTHANGER ABBEY and PERSUASION By the Author of "Pride and Prejudice," "Mansfield Park," &c. With a biographical notice of the author.

First edition. Four volumes. Contemporary quarter calf and marbled paper covered boards. The spines with four raised bands, titles in gilt on red morocco labels, the volume number stamped in gilt within the fourth compartment. All edges speckled red. Volumes I and II printed by C. Roworth, volumes III and IV by T. Davison. Half title (a11) and advertisment present in volume I; half titles of volumes II, III, IV discarded by the binder. A very good copy, the bindings firm with rubbing to the edges and corners. The contents, with a previous owner's name in pencil on the front endpaper and a paper bookseller's label (Davies Booksellers, Gloster) to the top left corner of the front pastedown of each volume. Volumes I, II, III with mild spotting mostly confined to the margins, volume II with a small chip to the upper blank margin edge; volume IV with heavier spotting again mostly confined to the margins, a single ink annotation to the outer margin of p.199 and a light brown stain to final five pages, the text easily legible.

All in all an excellent example of the first edition of Jane Austen's first and last completed novels. Published posthumously, volume I includes a "Biographical Notice of The Author" by her brother Henry, which is the first acknowledgement in print of Jane Austen as the author of any of her novels. (Gilson, David: A Bibliography of Jane Austen, A9).