Jane Austen's novels remain among the best-loved works of English literature, both in her native Britain and throughout the world. They have inspired numerous sequels, prequels and spin-off volumes, and have been widely adapted for film and television. For generations of readers, Austen's novels have come to represent the essence of the Regency period, epitomising wit, elegance, and a vanished world of politeness and privilege, and harking back to a time of greater moral and social coherence. Austen is also a gentle satirist, justly celebrated for her ironically mocking depictions of the fashions and foibles of her age, and a moralist, known for the clarity of her moral vision and her penetrating psychological insight. For many readers, however, Austen's novels are quite simply the most delightful and satisfying love stories of all time, and her characters the most believable of literary creations. This edition, from Cambridge Scholars Publishing, makes available the complete text of all Jane Austen's works, including her juvenilia and unfinished later works, in an affordable and accessible format. Each volume features a very brief introduction, covering the historical context in which the work or works were written, Austen's own views of the text(s), relevant responses from later readers, and helpful suggestions for further reading. The edition also includes a longer general introduction to Austen's life and works, by a Jane Austen scholar, Dr Katie Halsey of the University of London. Publisher's Note to the Complete Works of Jane Austen This edition of the Works contains Austen's six completed mature novels, plus all the known surviving juvenilia, the early epistolary novel Lady Susan, and the two late novels left incomplete at Austen's death. The contents of the volumes are: Volume 1 (368 pp.): Critical introduction to the Works by Dr. Katie Halsey; Sense and Sensibility and Lady Susan (an early epistolary novel) Volume 2 (304 pp.): Pride and Prejudice Volume 3 (185 pp.): Northanger Abbey Volume 4 (347 pp.): Mansfield Park Volume 5 (365 pp.): Emma Volume 6 (188 pp.): Persuasion Volume 7 (205 pp.): Juvenilia Volume 8 (93 pp.): The Watsons and Sanditon (the incomplete novels) All of the Works have been newly typeset for this edition. The texts of The Watsons and Lady Susan are based on those published with J. E. Austen Leigh's memoir of Austen (London: Richard Bentley & Son, 1883). The juvenilia are based on the first editions, in three volumes, printed from the manuscripts: Volume the First (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1933); Love and Freindship (London: Chatto & Windus, 1922); Volume the Third (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1951). The text of Sanditon is based on the first edition from the manuscript (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1925). The texts of the published novels have been based on those available online from Project Gutenberg, with reference to Richard Bentley's 1833 collected edition. Dr. Katie Halsey (Institute of English Studies, University of London) has contributed both an introduction to the Works as a whole, printed in volume 1, and a separate brief introduction to each volume.
About the Author: Katie Halsey researches and teaches at the Institute of English Studies, University of London, having taught previously at the Universities of Cambridge and St Andrews. She has written and published widely on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century literature and culture, and currently works on the history of reading from 1450 to 1945. Katie is a lifetime devotee of Jane Austen's works, and is the author of a book entitled Jane Austen and her Readers.