Jane Austen's Works
An enduringly popular writer, Jane Austen (1775-1817) pioneered the use of literary romance to assert nineteenth-century feminist values in her major novels: Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), Emma (1815), and, published together (posthumously) in 1817, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. Bruce Peel Special Collections is home to first editions of all of Austen’s major novels, as well as published correspondence and a variety of modern editions of her short works, including adolescent stories and plays that have been published from manuscripts relatively recently: Love & Freindship [sic] (1995), Henry & Eliza (1996), Three Mini Dramas (2006), and The History of England from the Reign of Henry the 4th to the Death of Charles the 1st (2009). It is worth noting that the first edition of Pride and Prejudice was, for many years, one of the most requested books in the Peel library following a high-profile story in the Edmonton Journal (28 January 2013) by Paula Simons about the two hundredth anniversary of its publication.
Getting started: Most student researchers will want to employ a series of keyword searches in the University of Alberta Library catalogue in order to find published materials by and about Jane Austen, in both print and digital formats, in all U of A library locations and collections. The Peel copy of the first edition of Pride and Prejudice can be viewed online through the Internet Archive. For more information about research in the Peel library, see Finding and Requesting Peel Library Materials.
Collection Formats: 19th Century, Books, Correspondence -- click to see other collections with this format
First edition of Pride and Prejudice: A Novel in Three Volumes (PR 4034 P94 1813 v.1-3).
Title page of the first edition of Pride and Prejudice (PR 4034 P94 1813 v.1).
Five Letters from Jane Austen to Her Niece, Fanny Knight (PR 4036 A4 K67 1924).
Five Letters from Jane Austen to Her Sister Cassandra, 1813 (PR 4036 A477 1981).
Newly illustrated edition of Love & Freindship [sic], edited by Professor Juliet McMaster and the students of English 659 at the University of Alberta (PR 4034 L89 1995).