MANSFIELD PARK: A NOVEL. IN TWO VOLUMES
Philadelphia: Carey & Lea, 1832. First American Edition. Octavos, [4, advertisements], 3-200 pp (Vol. 1); 204 pp (Vol. 2); Fair; bound in contemporary tan paper with 1/2 cloth, spines and spine labels absent, discoloration and age toning to covers, tears to edges and corners; bindings tight; text blocks rough and uneven; foxing and discoloration to pages; previous owner name in pencil on title pages "Mary Kent Jan'y 1st 1833;" hand-drawn portrait in pencil of a woman in profile with the caption "Fanny" on final page of Vol. 2.
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NOTES
Jane Austen was born in 1775 and died in 1817. She learned to read and write early, and had full access to her clergyman father's library, probably reading many of the same works he taught to the neighborhood boys he tutored. With her sister, Cassandra, she was sent to a school in Oxford for further education, where she nearly died from typhus. She wrote short novellas, satirical epistolary exchanges, and dramatics to perform with her seven siblings. None of the editions of the four novels published during her lifetime (Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, and Emma) bear her name. The memoir of her life written by her brother and published posthumously with Northanger Abbey and Persuasion identified her as the author of all six novels.
Mansfield Park was Jane Austen's third published novel. The first edition, published by Thomas Egerton in 1814, sold out within six months. In 1815, emboldened by this success, Austen decided to switch publishers. John Murray, who was much better known, was tasked in 1816 with publishing the second edition of Mansfield Park as well as her newest novel, Emma, the latter of which she grudgingly dedicated to the profligate Prince Regent at his own request.
Mathew Carey, a publisher in Philadelphia, read an unsigned review of Emma by Sir Walter Scott in late 1815. Feeling certain that the book would have a significant impact in the United States, he obtained copies of the London edition to sell, and began printing copies himself. This first appearance of Austen's work in America was not the sensation he had hoped for, and very few copies of his first edition remain today. It wasn't until 1832 that Carey and his partner Lea found success publishing the works of Jane Austen.