Among the highlights of the upcoming sale is one of Austen’s longest surviving letters. Written to her sister, Cassandra Austen, in 1805, it captures the bustling social life of Bath that would later shape Persuasion, which was published posthumously in 1817, the year she died. It’s estimated to sell for $300,000 to $400,000.
Alongside the letter is an exceptional association copy of Emma — the last of the author’s novels published while she was still living — that Austen sent to the celebrated Irish novelist Maria Edgeworth. It is the only known instance of Austen sending her work to a fellow author and is expected to fetch between $250,000 and $350,000.
The sale is at Southeby’s, New York. Here is the story. Here is the Southeby’s page. h/t
I have been pouring over my copy of Jane Austen's letters as I draft my current series of posts on Mansfield Park. She put so many clues in them as to what she was after and why the tone of the novel varies considerably from P & P. The care she takes to write detailed and entertaining descriptions to her siblings makes it difficult not to lament how far we have fallen in both public and private discourse. Her wit appears effortless. I was laughing at her offhand description of a new acquaintance: "They live in a handsome style and are rich, and she seemed to like to be rich, and we gave her to understand that we were far from being so; she will soon feel therefore that we are not worth her acquaintance." January 8, 1807