In 1811, Jane Austen’s first novel, Sense and Sensibility was published on October 30th by Thomas Egerton. Jane paid for the privilege and awarded her publisher a commission on sales. She made a profit of £140 on the first edition, which sold all 750 printed copies by July 1813. A second edition was advertised in October 1813. Note the title page in the last illustration – there is no reference to Jane as the author. It simply states – By a Lady – it was not considered quite the done thing to be a lady novelist and so keeping her name a secret was preferred.
On April 25th of that year she was doing the last edits to her book. I love this snippet to Cassandra in a letter sent whilst she was staying at her brother Henry’s house in Sloane Street, London. If you remember, this was the brother who had married Eliza de Feuillide. Jane writes:
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