Lot 145: [BRONTË, Charlotte (1816-1855)]. Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. Edited by Currer Bell . London: Smith Elder, 1847.

[BRONTË, Charlotte (1816-1855)]. Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. Edited by Currer Bell. London: Smith Elder, 1847.

3 volumes, 8υo. Half-titles, publisher's 32-page catalogue dated October 1847, without the inserted fly-title and the advertising leaf for The Calcutta Review found in some copies. Original plum cloth, covers stamped in blind with triple-line border enclosing ropework border, gilt-lettered on spines (spines faded, some spotting and wear to extremities, spines and inner hinges discretely repaired); brown morocco slipcase.

Provenance: Joseph E. Edlmann, Bickley 1850 (faint inscription on title of vol. 1); Herschel V. Jones (bookplate; his sale Anderson Galleries, 2 December 1918, lot 232); Jerome Kern (bookplate; his sale Anderson Galleries, 7 January 1929, lot 72); Doris L. Benz (bookplate; her sale Christie's New York, 16 November 1984, lot 45); Richard Manney (bookplate; his sale Sotheby's New York, 11 October 1991, lot 24).

"AT THE END WE ARE STEEPED THROUGH AND THROUGH WITH THE GENIUS, THE VEHEMENCE, THE INDIGNATION OF CHARLOTTE BRONTË" (Virginia Woolf)

THE JONES-KERN-BENZ-MANNEY COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION of Charlotte Brontë's revolutionary novel, abounding with social criticism and gothic elements that changed the course of the English novel, and particularly the female heroine. After numerous publishers initially rejected her first novel The Professor, Brontë intensely focused her attention on a new work, rapidly finishing certain sections, while others took weeks or even months to complete, as reported by Elizabeth Gaskell. When she delivered the fair copy of the manuscript to Smith, Elder on 19 August 1847, it was received enthusiastically by their reader W. Smith Williams and by the head of the firm, George Smith. It was printed on 19 October; the second edition, dedicated to William Makepeace Thackeray, was published in January 1848. It was very well received by both critics and the public, and by 1850 four editions had been printed. Ashley I:72; Grolier English 83; David Magee, Victoria R.I. 117; Parrish, Victorian Lady Novelists, pp. 87-88; Sadleir 346; Smith 2; Wolff 826.

DOYLE, Sir Arthur Conan (1859-1930).
Est. $60,000 - $80,000