Advertisements in the Morning Chronicle and other newspapers show that the books were published on December 20, 1817, although the title page is dated 1818. The four-volume set also included Henry’s “Biographical Notice of the Author,” which revealed for the first time in print that Jane Austen was the author of Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, and Emma. Henry and Cassandra Austen negotiated with John Murray to publish the remaining manuscripts as a four-volume set on commission, with “Catherine” renamed Northanger Abbey and Austen’s untitled, final work named Persuasion. Jane Austen died four months later, on July 18, 1817. In her will, she left her unpublished novels and the copyrights to Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park, and Emma to her sister. It is short, about the length of Catherine.” That “something” was Persuasion. Jane Austen mentioned the novel in a letter to her niece Fanny Knight on March 13, 1817: “Miss Catherine is put upon the Shelve for the present, and I do not know that she will ever come out but “I have a something ready for Publication, which may perhaps appear about a twelvemonth hence. The final version of the manuscript was completed on August 6, 1816, when Jane Austen was 40 years old. The cancelled chapters, which are the only manuscript pages in existence from one of her completed novels, can be examined on the Jane Austen’s Fiction Manuscripts: Digital Edition website.Īlthough Persuasion was completed in August 1816, Austen took no steps to have it published. Perhaps she planned to revise the manuscript further before publication. In his “Biographical Notice of the Author,” which was included when the novel was later published, her brother Henry provided this description of her working method: “though in composition she was equally rapid and correct, yet an invincible distrust of her own judgement induced her to withhold her works from the public, till time and many perusals had satisfied her that the charm of recent composition was dissolved.” Jane Austen’s last completed novel is also one of her most popular works. Often described as “autumnal” in tone, Persuasion is the story of a mature heroine and second chances.Īccording to the timeline left by her sister, Cassandra, Jane Austen began writing Persuasion on August 8, 1815. The first draft was completed July 18, 1816, but she was unhappy with the ending and subsequently revised it by writing two new chapters. Jane Austen, letter to niece Fanny Knight, March 23-25, 1817 ' You may perhaps like the Heroine, as she is almost too good for me.'

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