Illustrated facsimile edition of Pride and Prejudice published
Alert Janeite Robin sent us news of a new illustrated edition of Pride and Prejudice that is a facsimile edition of the version published by George Allen in 1894 with illustrations by Hugh Thomson. The book is available in the U.K. as well. It looks as though there will be an illustrated “companion” book published in September.
July 13th, 2005 at 3:13 pm
Mags, the book you link to at amazon.uk is something a little different; just the Thomson illustrations with excerpts from the text. The “unabridged republication” (the one you link to at amazon.com)is 512 pages, and has the text, all 160 illustrations, and the original preface by George Saintsbury.
I looked in abebooks and there are twelve copies of this George Allen edition of P&P, priced from $247 up to $10,987. It seems extraordinary that we can buy the reprint for $11.53!
I looked it up in David Gilson’s Bibliography of Jane Austen and it sounds like a very desirable edition. Here is an extract from Gilson’s description
Pride and Prejudice. With a preface by George Saintsbury and illustrations by Hugh Thomson. London: George Allen, Ruskin House, 156 Charing Cross Road, 1894.
…The work contains a total of 160 line drawings by Hugh Thomson, comprising illustrations in the text (many with a copyright statement), headpieces, tailpieces, ornamental initials and other decorations, including the wholly drawn titlepage and dedication… Thomson was paid 500 [pounds] plus a royalty of 7d a copy on every copy sold after 10,000; he began work in the autumn of 1893,and the book was published in 1894. In a year 11,605 copies had been sold, plus 3,500 sent to America, and by 1907 25,000 copies had been sold…
Well, I shall buy one. And what a pity Hugh Thomson won’t get the 7d (not to mention Jane!)
July 13th, 2005 at 3:22 pm
Whoops, my bad. I think I found the right link, above. It looks like it’s already available but takes a while to get. There is another “companion” book to be published in September. Same publisher, Dover; not sure what the difference is.
Dover specializes in publishing inexpensive editions of out of print books, so I’m not surprised that they’re behind this.