The Jane Austen Annotated Editions

The Series

These richly illustrated and annotated oversize editions instruct readers in a larger appreciation of Austen’s novels and the world their author inhabited. The abundance of color illustrations allows readers to see the characters, locations, clothing, and carriages of the novels, as well as the larger historical events that shape their action. Marginal notes provide running commentary on the novels, explaining unfamiliar words, allusions, and contexts while bringing together critical observation and scholarship for the ultimate reading experience. These beautiful editions are designed to last for generations. Lovers of Austen’s novels and book collectors will want to own and treasure all of the volumes in Harvard University Press’s Annotated Austen series.

“If you haven’t yet seen the Harvard University Press’s annotated Jane Austen series, prepare yourself for a major treat.”—The Christian Science Monitor (10 Best Holiday Gift Book Ideas, 2013)

See What’s Inside…

Click the image below to view a sample interior spread from Pride and Prejudice. Use the pop-up arrow buttons, your mouse scroll wheel, or your left and right arrow keys to cycle through the images.

Critical Acclaim for Mansfield Park…

“Belknap’s recently released annotated Mansfield Park, edited by [Deidre Shauna] Lynch, is a 532-page, colour-illustrated tour de force.&rdsquo;

—Devoney Looser, The Times Literary Supplement

“Lynch here makes Austen’s most divisive novel accessible, intriguing, and beautiful. She strikes a deft balance between information and analysis in her notes and with supporting documents that lend historical depth to the edition, while also linking the narrative to popular culture… With this edition, readers will want to stay with these characters for as long as possible.&rdsquo;

—Emily Bowles, Library Journal (starred review)

…for Northanger Abbey…

“The Belknap Press of the Harvard University Press continues its stellar collection of gorgeous, oversized editions with a new annotated version of Jane Austen’s 1817 novel Northanger Abbey. Princeton University English professor Susan Wolfson does the annotating honors this time, filling page after page with her lively and freakishly comprehensive marginalia… Her Introduction is fast-paced and insightful… The quality of the annotations themselves is universally excellent… No matter how many times you’ve read Northanger Abbey, Wolfson will teach you something, and many of the connections she draws are fascinating.”

—Steve Donoghue, Open Letters Monthly

…for Sense and Sensibility…

“Sense and Sensibility: An Annotated Edition is the press’ fifth Austen book and is a worthy addition. It’s gorgeous to look at, with moire endpapers, illustrations from various editions of the book (as well as photographs of objects of the time, and paintings of contemporary well-known people), and, of course, the intelligent and abundant annotations, by scholar Patricia Meyer Spacks.”

—Laurie Hertzel, The Minneapolis Star-Tribune

“[Spacks] is particularly astute at contextualizing 19th century thought and ideas for a contemporary audience… For people returning to the novel, Spacks’ notes are quite illuminating, mostly serious, but occasionally fun… Spacks’ introduction and annotations indicate a person who has spent a considerable amount of time with the Dashwoods and their assorted friends and foes. This handsome edition is all the richer for it.”

—Subashini Navaratnam, PopMatters

…for Emma…

“Its large size and heavy weight, complemented by thick, wood-textured endpapers, acid-free cream-vellum paper, generous margins and woven bindings suggest an object important in its own right, an object and a form that will not go quietly into the good night. Its rich illustrations range from frontispieces and portraits to caricatures and Regency fashion plates, including a fine one for the Beaver Hat. Tandon’s explanatory notes are similarly comprehensive and serve to link Austen not only to contemporaries such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Mary Wollstonecraft and Charles Lamb, but also to lexical and thematic lines that run backwards, from Samuel Richardson and Henry Fielding to Seneca, and forwards to James Joyce and the contemporary novelist Edward St Aubyn… Tandon’s notes often function as brief scholarly and historic articles in their own right, and the combined effect of these notes and illustrations is an edition of almost Talmudic ambition, but one that carries its erudition without sacrificing readability… Tandon’s notes are superb… One of the great merits of Tandon’s edition is that, without breaking the spell of Austen’s fiction, he presents her work as so very much of her time, whether that be in her conceptual relation to moralists such as Samuel Johnson, or in the social resonances of foodstuffs, clothing and card games.”

—Jonathan Sachs, The Times Literary Supplement

…for Persuasion…

“A fine example of the revitalized investment in beautiful books that keeps company with [the] latest phase of digital reproduction. Lavishly respectful of the best material values of the book (elegant cloth binding, gold-stamped spine, silky endpapers, thick and creamy paper, superb illustrations), it also celebrates Austen’s bookish credentials. Its size (25 × 24 cm) makes it monumental rather than portable: a book for exhibition and browsing rather than for continuous reading on the train or in bed. Page layout is double-columned, with the novel text occupying the inner column, and commentary, annotation and graphic illustration tucked around it, cosseting and adorning it, in a gesture akin to the medieval art of illumination. This does not represent the contest for the space of the page that we find in some dry scholarly editions of the twentieth century, where footnotes and layers of synoptic apparatus induce anxiety in the reader, but something closer to loving embellishment and homage… This volume’s purpose of pleasure is evident in the freewheeling style of Robert Morrison’s annotations.”

—Kathryn Sutherland, The Times Literary Supplement

“This gorgeous annotated edition of Persuasion, the second annotated Austen title Belknap Harvard has released, is a must for all Janeites. For those unfamiliar with Austen’s milieu, Morrison’s notes provide basic information, such as explanations of words or phrases and geographical information. However, Morrison goes beyond the basics in his notes, explaining the intricacies of the Navy and providing details about Austen’s allusions to figures such as Samuel Johnson. He also provides a fine scholarly analysis of the novel, including an extended discussion—in which he quotes the premier Austen scholars—of Captain Wentworth’s letter. And his preface firmly places the novel in the events of its setting, especially the Napoleonic Wars (which Austen never overtly refers to). The beauty of this book is the lovely pictures, such as fashion plates, naval scenes, sketches of Bath, and illustrations from various editions of the novel. This volume should please all readers, from those reading Persuasion for the first time to seasoned Austen scholars. The volume has been generating a lot of excitement in both scholarly and popular Austen circles, and rightly so!”

—L. J. Larson, Choice

…and for Pride and Prejudice:

“[A] beautiful new illustrated edition… The great benefit of Spacks’s notes, set out in columns beside the text, and sometimes occupying whole facing pages, is that they make you read more slowly. Instead of letting Austen’s delicious confection slip down like a syllabub, you have to think about each sentence, and that enriches and complicates everything… Pride and Prejudice is a rarity among great books in being both a trenchant moral tale and the wispiest wish fulfillment, as unreal as Cinderella.”

—John Carey, The Sunday Times

“Reading Pride and Prejudice with Spacks as a guide illuminates the richness of Austen’s historical context, as the annotations draw attention to important material that might initially be missed… This beautifully produced and informative guide to reading Austen’s brilliant and beloved novel in its historical context will be a welcome addition to the library of anyone who has read, or plans to read, Pride and Prejudice more than once… Both specialists and fans will find it a great pleasure to read, learn from, and argue with Spacks’s annotated edition of this classic novel.”

—Sarah Emsley, Open Letters Monthly

The Books

• Emma, edited by Bharat Tandon
• Mansfield Park, edited by Deidre Shauna Lynch
• Northanger Abbey, edited by Susan J. Wolfson
• Persuasion, edited by Robert Morrison
• Pride and Prejudice, edited by Patricia Meyer Spacks
• Sense and Sensibility, edited by Patricia Meyer Spacks

Related Links

• Read a Harvard Magazine profile of Mansfield Park editor Deidre Lynch
• Find out why Minnesota Public Radio’s The Daily Circuit chose Robert Morrison’s annotated Persuasion as their Book Pick of the Week
• In the Daily Telegraph, read Emma editor Bharat Tandon’s argument that rather than a frivolous romantic, Jane Austen was “a hard-headed chronicler of money worries,”—and thus deserves to be featured on the new £10 note
• On BBC Radio 4’s Open Book, listen to Tandon discuss the impact of Austen’s work
• In the Times, read Tandon’s “40 Things You Didn’t Know about Jane Austen”
• At The Huffington Post, read how Tandon selected the illustrations for Emma
• At the HUP Blog, read a Q&A with Persuasion editor Morrison about the experience of editing Austen
• Watch a video about the book design process for Pride and Prejudice
• Discover more Jane Austen resources online
• See other HUP annotated editions
• Browse: Literary Biography and Autobiography
• Browse: British History
• Browse: Nineteenth-Century History