Description: Kathryn Sutherland presents an edition of the fiction manuscripts of Jane Austen (1775-1817) in this five-volume set: the first substantial collection of autograph writings to survive for a British novelist. The texts represent every stage of Austen's writing life, from childhood to the year of her death, and claim a special place in our understanding of the famous fictions.
Review Quotes: "This is the print iteration of Jane Austen's Fiction Manuscripts, a website Sutherland (Univ. of Oxford, UK) has built over several years. The website includes approximately 1,000 pages of unpublished literary manuscripts left by Austen, everything from the many zany short works she wrote as a child (age 12-17) to Sanditon, the novel she worked on until a few months before her death in 1817...The hardcover under review here includes photos of manuscript pages with transcriptions en face, along with massive textual commentary not on the website: longer head notes to each work explaining each's provenance, physical characteristics, and composition, and long opening chapters on the history of the manuscripts and their eventual publication Sutherland's textual commentary is superbly informative... those seeking comprehensive Austen collections will want the print set." -- CHOICE