Chapter XXVI: Appendix: The Text of Jane Austen's Novels

In the course of frequent reprinting, various errors have crept into the text of the novels, which seem in danger of becoming perpetuated. We therefore make no apology for pointing these out and for giving our reasons why we prefer any particular reading.

In arriving at the correct text of Jane Austen, common sense will be our best guide. It is of no use to assume, as some editors have done, that the latest edition which appeared in the author's lifetime, and which might naturally have had the benefit of her corrections, is any more correct than the earliest. Jane Austen was no skilled proofreader, and it is a melancholy fact that the second edition of _Mansfield Park_, which she returned to Mr. Murray 'as ready for press' as she could make it, contains more misprints than any of the other novels, including one or two that do not appear in the first edition. But as the type was evidently re-set, this may have been as much the printer's fault as the author's. Again, though in one of her letters she points out a misprint in the first edition of _Pride and Prejudice_, the passage is not corrected in either the second or third edition, both of which subsequently appeared in her lifetime.

Before noticing the various discrepancies, it is necessary to say a few words about the chief editions of note. During the author's lifetime three editions appeared of _Pride and Prejudice_, two of _Sense and Sensibility_ and of _Mansfield Park_, and one of _Emma_. _Northanger Abbey_ and _Persuasion_ were published soon after her death. No other edition of the novels seems to have been published until Bentley bought up the copyrights of all the novels in 1832, and included them in his 'Standard Novels' series.

In process of time, Bentley's edition adopted various emendations in the text. It held the field to all intents and purposes for sixty years (apart from cheap reprints in the 'Parlour Series,' 'Railway Library,' &c.), and its text has largely been followed in later editions, especially by Messrs. Macmillan in their 'Pocket Classics' series. Other recent editions, containing a more or less independent text--arrived at by following the earliest editions--are those edited for Messrs. Dent by Mr. Brimley Johnson, the earliest of which appeared in 1892, and the most recent of which has appeared in 'Everyman's Library'; the Hampshire Edition (_published_ by Mr. Brimley Johnson, but differing considerably from the editions which he has _edited_); and the Winchester Edition, published by Mr. Grant Richards.

Finally, with regard to textual criticism, we have an article 'On the printing of Jane Austen's novels,' by the late Dr. Verrall, contributed to the _Cambridge Observer_, about 1892; and two others, also by Dr. Verrall, 'On some passages in Jane Austen's _Mansfield Park_,' in the _Cambridge Review_, for November 30 and December 7, 1893; and certain emendations pointed out in a review of a new edition of _Pride and Prejudice_ in the _Saturday Review_ of November 12, 1910.

'SENSE AND SENSIBILITY'

In this novel scarcely anything calls for notice. The main divergencies seem to be that the editions are divided between reading 'such happiness' and 'such an happiness,' at the end of Chapter III; between 'by all who called themselves her friends' and 'by all who call themselves her friends,' in Chapter XXXII; and 'one of the happiest couples' or 'one of the happiest couple,' in Chapter L.

Johnson's 1892 edition has an unfortunate blunder at the beginning of