Dear Readers,
Happy New Year! I hope your holiday season was as fabulous and unforgettable as mine. One of my favorite holiday gifts was a gift certificate from Barnes & Noble, which helped me to complete all six annotations by Harvard University Press of Jane Austen’s best known novels. I quickly purchased Northanger Abbey, which I’ve been perusing since receiving it a few days ago.
Susan J. Wolfson, professor in the Department of English at Princeton University, edited this edition, which has an extensive 60-page introduction. The book’s format follows the five other annotations – Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park, Emma, and Persuasion – with Jane Austen’s text in the center and the annotated commentary placed on the far right on uneven pages or far left on even pages. Descriptive images of Bath, a poste chaise, or fashions of the day provide a visual punch to this annotation, as do the well-chosen images in the other books.
Two-page spread of pages 112 & 113 of Northanger Abbey, annotated edition.
For readers who were lucky enough to receive gift cards for books, I cannot recommend these gorgeous hard-cover books enough.
More on the topic:
- The Jane Austen Annotated Editions: Harvard University Press (includes information about all six editions)
- This blog’s reviews of the Harvard University Press’s annotated editions of Jane Austen’s Novels: Click here
Jane Austen's World 
Gorgeous! My other two sets of her books suddenly seem inadequate…
Happy New Year! What a wonderful gift.
denise
Oh, Vic – now those books are real keepers – how wonderful for you to have them! (Makes my paperback boxed set look a tad bit puny.) What fun you’ll have with them on a long winter’s day!
For an early Christmas present, my mom gave me a sizable Barnes & Noble gift card. I quickly went on line and bought all six volumes of these marvels! A truck and a forklift had to make the delivery to my front door!
Finished the Emma (my favorite Jane Austen novel) and now I’m reading P&P, after watching the mini-series (1995 with Colin Firth), and listening to the audio cd in the automobile while Christmas shopping. There’s just too much to learn, which is what makes my world go round. Glad you’re liking your volumes, too.
I happened to see Mr. Darcy’s shirt from the strip off lake scene from this series in the Folger library in 2016 in the frivolous exhibit Will and Jane: Shakespeare, Austen and the Cult of Celebrity. Jane was very much the winner since the Folger are die hard Stratfordians, supporting a town which refuses thousands of pounds to even debate their position. The Jane artifacts in the exhibit were first rate like Firth’s shirt.
I own the Jane Austin action figure =) Not quite “the Shirt!”
Oh, those books look beautiful! Happy New Year to you…and enjoy your new treasure! :)
Congratulations on getting these books. They are lovely. Enjoy. Wishing you and yours a blessed and happy 2019.
Marilyn
I have the annotated version of Pride & Prejudice – purchased at Powell’s Books, no less! :-) This whets my appetite for collecting her others, when I can…
I never knew that there was such a thing! I have now started my 2019 birthday and Christmas list!