Later Manuscripts

by Jane Austen, Janet Todd, Linda Bree

Overview

The manuscripts that survive from Jane Austen's maturity offer a unique insight into her life as a creative writer. This volume collects together, for the first time, all the literary manuscripts from Austen's adult years (with the exception of the cancelled chapters of Persuasion, in this edition printed with the finished novel), together with letters discussing the art of fiction, and her record of responses to her novels. Included here are the novella 'Lady Susan', the novel fragments of 'The Watsons' and 'Sanditon', poems and charades, and the comic 'Plan of a Novel’. In an Appendix are collected other works ascribed to Austen, including the play 'Sir Charles Grandison' and three prayers. The introduction offers a history of the manuscripts and a full account of the current state of scholarship on them, and the texts are accompanied by explanatory notes and contextual information.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781107620407
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	05/30/2013
Series:	The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Jane Austen
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	874
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.93(d)

About the Author

Janet Todd is Professor of English Literature at the University of Aberdeen.

Linda Bree is Publisher for Literature at Cambridge University Press.

Date of Birth:

December 16, 1775

Date of Death:

July 18, 1817

Place of Birth:

Village of Steventon in Hampshire, England

Place of Death:

Winchester, Hampshire, England

Education:

Taught at home by her father

Table of Contents

Chronology; Introduction; Note on the text; The Fiction: Lady Susan; The Watsons; Sanditon; Poems and Charades: Poems; Charades; Austen on Fiction: To Mrs. Hunter of Norwich; Letters on Fiction; Plan of a Novel; Opinions of Mansfield Park; Opinions of Emma; Appendices: A. Transcription of The Watsons; B. Transcription of Sanditon; C. Sir Charles Grandison; D. Prayers; E. Family poems; F. Attributed poems; Corrections and emendations; Explanatory notes.

Editorial Reviews

"The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Jane Austen performs an admirable service for readers—and particularly scholars – of Austen. It is a service that will no doubt last for generations to come."
-Devoney Looser, University of Missouri, Editionen in der Kritik

"In what is probably the most venturesome and rewarding volume in the splendid "Cambridge Edition of the Works of Jane Austen, Todd and Bree present scrupulously re-edited texts of Lady Susan, The Watsons, and Sandition, along with line-by-line transcriptions of the manuscripts of the last two, which allow readers to appreciate Austen's habits of revision. They also present Austen's letters and brief essays on fiction, and texts of her 18 poems and the late charades...[The editors] have provided both the best introduction to these later works of Austen and the most satisfying reading-texts of them to date."
—Choice

From the Publisher