First American edition: Mansfield Park

Object name: Mansfield Park, 2 vols., first American edition, 1832.

ObjectĀ number: CHWJA:JAHB14.2.1-2

Category:Ā Books

Description: First American edition of Mansfield Park, printed by Carey & Lea, Philadelphia, 1832. In two volumes, with original brown boards, with brown cloth spines. Handwritten on the cover of the first volume are the words ā€˜Mansfield Park Jane Austen Iā€™, on the second: ā€˜M Park Jane Austen IIā€™.

Made: 1832

Context: This lacklustre copy of Mansfield Park may not look like much (it survives in original drab boards, was printed on thin, poor-quality paper, and is stained and weathered by nearly two centuries of wear), but it is nonetheless a very important and valuable copy. This particular edition, printed by the firm of Carey & Lea in Philadelphia in 1832, is not only noteworthy for being the first-ever American reprinting of Mansfield Park, it also predates the reprinting of Austen in her own country.Ā  Austenā€™s slumbering reputation after her death in 1817 was thought to be single-handedly revived by publisher Richard Bentley, when he included her works in his Standard Novels series in 1833. Ā This rare survivor of an earlier American edition challenges the dominant narrative of Austenā€™s early climb to fame.

Find out more about Mansfield Park.Ā 

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