'
'Steventon, near Overton, Hants,
'1st Nov. 1797.'
This proposal was declined by return of post! The work thus summarily
rejected must have been 'Pride and Prejudice.'
The fate of 'Northanger Abbey' was still more humiliating. It was sold,
in 1803, to a publisher in Bath, for ten pounds, but it found so little
favour in his eyes, that he chose to abide by his first loss rather than
risk farther expense by publishing such a work. It seems to have lain
for many years unnoticed in his drawers; somewhat as the first chapters
of 'Waverley' lurked forgotten amongst the old fishing-tackle in Scott's
cabinet. Tilneys, Thorpes, and Morlands consigned apparently to eternal
oblivion! But when four novels of steadily increasing success had given
the writer some confidence in herself, she wished to recover the
copyright of this early work. One of her brothers undertook the
negotiation. He found the purchaser very willing to receive back his
money, and to resign all claim to the copyright. When the bargain was
concluded and the money paid, but not till then, the negotiator had the
satisfaction of informing him that the work which had been so lightly
esteemed was by the author of 'Pride and Prejudice.
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