Hans Place: Thursday [November 23, 1815]. Sir,—My brother's note last Monday has been so fruitless, that I am afraid there can be but little chance of my writing to any good effect; but yet I am so very much disappointed and vexed by the delays of the printers, that I cannot help begging to know whether there is no hope of their being quickened. Instead of the work being ready by the end of the present month, it will hardly, at the rate we now proceed, be finished by the end of the next; and as I expect to leave London early in December, it is of consequence that no more time should be lost. Is it likely that the printers will be influenced to greater dispatch and punctuality by knowing that the work is to be dedicated, by permission, to the Prince Regent? If you can make that circumstance operate, I shall be very glad. My brother returns Waterloo with many thanks for the loan of it. We have heard much of Scott's account of Paris. If it be not incompatible with other arrangements, would you favour us with it, supposing you have any set already opened? You may depend upon its being in careful hands. I remain, Sir, your obt. humble Set., J. Austen.
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Getting Emma into print
Jane deals directly with her new publisher, John Murray, as printing delays threaten her plans to leave London. She arranges a copy of Emma for the Prince Regent and sends back Mansfield Park for its second edition. Emma actually appeared on 23 December 1815, although its title pages say 1816: the earlier date mentioned in her letter is an advertised plan, not proof that the book was then available. The two different letters headed 11 December concern, first, arrangements for publication and, second, correcting her instructions about the dedication’s position. Jane Austen’s House describes the first edition and its publication.
A Memoir of Jane Austen (1871), p. 129 is another printing of this letter. “The work” is Emma, not the later second edition of Mansfield Park. The borrowed “Scott’s account of Paris” is not securely identified by this wording: the source suggests either Walter Scott’s Paul’s Letters to his Kinsfolk or John Scott’s Paris Revisited. Life and Letters, notes 301–302.
Source: Life and Letters (1913), p. 314.
‘Hans Place, December 11 (1815).
‘Dear Sir,—As I find that “Emma” is advertised for publication as early as Saturday next, I think it best to lose no time in settling all that remains to be settled on the subject, and adopt this method as involving the smallest tax on your time.
‘In the first place, I beg you to understand that I leave the terms on which the trade should be supplied with the work entirely to your judgment, entreating you to be guided in every such arrangement by your own experience of what is most likely to clear off the edition rapidly. I shall be satisfied with whatever you feel to be best. The title-page must be “Emma, dedicated by permission to H.R.H. the Prince Regent.” And it is my particular wish that one set should be completed and sent to H.R.H. two or three days before the work is generally public. It should be sent under cover to the Rev. J. S. Clarke, Librarian, Carlton House. I shall subjoin a list of those persons to whom I must trouble you to forward also a set each, when the work is out; all unbound, with “From the Authoress” in the first page.
‘I return you, with very many thanks, the books you have so obligingly supplied me with. I am very sensible, I assure you, of the attention you have paid to my convenience and amusement. I return also “Mansfield Park,” as ready for a second edition, I believe, as I can make it. I am in Hans Place till the 16th. From that day inclusive, my direction will be Chawton, Alton, Hants.
‘I remain, dear Sir,
‘Yr faithful humb. Servt. ‘J. Austen.
‘I wish you would have the goodness to send a line by the bearer, stating the day on which the set will be ready for the Prince Regent.’
‘Saturday next’ describes an advertised publication plan; Emma appeared on 23 December 1815 (first-edition context).
This version is fuller than the extract in Life and Letters. The promised recipient list is absent.
‘Hans Place, December 11 (1815).
‘Dear Sir,—I am much obliged by yours, and very happy to feel everything arranged to our mutual satisfaction. As to my direction about the title-page, it was arising from my ignorance only, and from my having never noticed the proper place for a dedication. I thank you for putting me right. Any deviation from what is usually done in such cases is the last thing I should wish for. I feel happy in having a friend to save me from the ill effect of my own blunder.
‘Yours, dear Sir, &c. ‘J. Austen.’
Both the Memoir and Life and Letters date this letter to 11 December. It is distinct from the longer instructions about presentation copies. This printing includes the closing omitted by Life and Letters; Murray’s intervening reply is absent.