Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. With a Preface by George Saintsbury and Illustrations by Hugh Thomson. 1894. London. George Allen.
A BEAUTIFUL EXAMPLE OF THE RARE AND DESIRABLE FIRST PEACOCK EDITION OF JANE AUSTEN'S PRIDE AND PREJUDICE!
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Here is a fantastic opportunity to acquire as a gift to yourself or someone else the remarkable first Peacock edition of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. This is the true 1894 first edition without the 1895 date on the verso of the title page as commonly misattributed as the first edition of 1894.
Many consider this book to be the first time Pride and Prejudice was illustrated as the only prior edition with any illustrations only had one illustrated frontispiece and none throughout the text. The significance of this edition is not only its remarkable attractiveness, but also that this is the first time readers got to see depictions of Mr Darcy, the Bennets, etc throughout the text, and Hugh Thomson's famous Peacock design would be forever intimately linked with Austen's magnum opus, becoming something of a classic in and of itself with many facsimile editions of this famous 1894 Peacock edition coming in later years and all the way to the present day.
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Size: 130 x 185 x 34 mm (approx.)
Condition:
[i-xxvii, 476pp.]
Overall, the book is significantly better than typically found without any substantial loss to the gilt front board as often. Binding ever so slightly cocked with very minor scuffing without shelf lean. Very minor wear to head and bottom of spine. Spine dulled but again better than usual. Both boards securely attached with minor wear to joints and hinges; rear joint starting and front hinge cracked exposing some of the netting as often. Boards with very minor superficial scratches and marks. Very minor shelf and edge wear, including minor rubbing to corners. Some dulling to page edge gilt. Endpapers and half title lightly foxed but with the text block remarkably clean throughout. Pencil ownership inscription to the top right corner of the half title and a small black mark to the bottom. Light toning to edges and very minor foxing to frontispiece and title page. Tissue paper between title page and frontispiece toned. Text block very clean with very light toning, very sporadic extremely minor foxing, and a very small number of very minor marks. Leaf numbered 465/466 detached but present. Text block cracked in a few placed with leaves all secure apart from the aforementioned leaf.
