The Works. Austen, Jane.

A finely bound collected edition of Austen's novels, including Lady Susan and her unfinished work The Watsons. It also features a selection of the author's letters and the notable biography written by her nephew, Edward Austen-Leigh (1798-1874), with the help of his sisters Anna and Caroline Austen. Their biography of their beloved aunt was first published in 1870, and the second enlarged edition of 1871 was the first published appearance of Lady Susan, The Watsons, and examples of Austen's juvenilia, all reproduced in the present work. Austen-Leigh's Memoir spawned many other pieces of criticism and remained influential; "the standard picture of Jane Austen's happy childhood in a pastoral idyll derives from her nephew", who "planted the tradition, subscribed to by most twentieth-century critics and biographers, that Austen the novelist was substantially created at home" (ODNB). Twelve volumes, octavo (167 x 107 mm). Contemporary green half morocco, spines with raised bands, compartments lettered and bordered in gilt, cloudy marbled sides and endpapers, top edges gilt. Engraved frontispiece with tissue guard to each volume save Letters, 3 half-tone plates, title pages printed in red and black. Contemporary ownership inscription of one Louise W. How to front pastedowns. Several gatherings uncut. Spines uniformly faded, marbled sides a little marked, closed tear to p. 172 of Lady Susan. A near-fine set.