FRAGMENT OF A NOVEL - THE FIRST EDITION OF JANE AUSTEN'S UNFINISHED LAST NOVEL - SANDITON

This - the definitive 1925 Clarendon Press edition, marks the very first time Jane Austen’s last novel and unfinished manuscript was published in its entirety. Edited by the renowned Austen scholar R. W. Chapman, it was issued under the descriptive title 'Fragment of a Novel' rather than the Austen family's preferred name, Sanditon. This is the first printing and one of the 250 large paper copies on handmade paper with fore and lower edges uncut, published alongside the standard trade edition. One page of the orignal Austen manuscript in facsimile is bound in.  8vo. In the original grey paper covered boards with a white cloth spine and a spine label which shows  the family name of the novel - Sanditon. The spine is slightly darkened and the label has mild edge chipping, otherwise this is a very good plus copy and internally, apart from some offsetting to both free endpapers, is fine, clean and unmarked and with no foxing. A fine copy of the spine label is bound in at the rear and there is a contemporary owner's ex-libris on the front pastedown.