1908 1stED illustrated by C. E. Brock - Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

An especially attractive 1908 illustrated edition of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, the first edition illustrated by C. E. Brock, with twenty-four charming colour illustrations and an elaborate gilt Art Nouveau-style publisher’s binding.

Author: AUSTEN, Jane.
Title: Sense and Sensibility.
Publisher: London, J. M. Dent & Co.; New York, E. P. Dutton & Co., 1908.
Edition: First edition illustrated by C. E. Brock; published in the Series of English Idylls.
Language: Text in English.
Pages: 308 pages.
Size: 8" x 5".
Binding: Very good original pale green publisher’s cloth, elaborately and intricately decorated and lettered in gilt to the front board and spine. Top edge gilt; fore and lower edges untrimmed. Light external dust-soiling and age-toning, more noticeable to the spine, with minor rubbing and marks consistent with age. Decorative pale green pictorial endpapers; inner hinges worn/cracked but remaining firm and tight, as shown. Protected in a removable mylar cover. 
Content: Very good content, clean and fresh overall, with light age-toning and occasional minor spotting. Complete with all illustrations.
Illustrations: Twenty-four colour illustrations by C. E. Brock, comprising the colour frontispiece, coloured pictorial title page and twenty-two additional colour plates throughout the text. Decorative endpapers also printed in pale green.

Estimate: USD 400–500.

The book:
This handsome 1908 edition is particularly desirable as the first edition of Sense and Sensibility illustrated by C. E. Brock and as part of J. M. Dent’s elegant Series of English Idylls. Brock’s twenty-four colour illustrations beautifully evoke the manners, costumes and interiors of Austen’s world, while the elaborate gilt publisher’s binding gives the volume considerable decorative appeal.

First published anonymously in 1811, Sense and Sensibility follows the contrasting temperaments and romantic fortunes of sisters Elinor and Marianne Dashwood. Through their experiences, Austen explores love, money, family expectations, social convention and the balance between emotional impulse and rational judgment. 

The author:
Jane Austen (1775–1817) is one of the most celebrated novelists in English literature. Her six completed novels combine social observation, irony and psychological insight with an exceptional understanding of courtship, class and domestic life in Regency England.

Sense and Sensibility was Austen’s first published novel, followed by Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park and Emma during her lifetime. Her work has remained continuously admired for its wit, precision and remarkably modern understanding of character and society.

The illustrator:
Charles Edmund Brock (1870–1938) was a British painter and book illustrator closely associated with illustrated editions of the English classics. He became particularly admired for his Austen illustrations, which combine historically informed costume and setting with lively characterization and subtle humour.

Brock’s illustrated Austen editions produced for J. M. Dent are now among the most recognizable and collectible early twentieth-century interpretations of her novels, and this 1908 Sense and Sensibility is a particularly appealing example.