A Memoir of Jane Austen

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Emma
at the rate we now proceed, be finished by the end of the next;
and as I expect to leave London early in December, it is of consequence
that no more time should be lost. Is it likely that the
printers will be influenced to greater dispatch and punctuality by
knowing that the work is to be dedicated, by permission, to the
Prince Regent? If you can make that circumstance operate, I shall
be very glad. My brother returns “Waterloo”° with many thanks
for the loan of it. We have heard much of Scott’s account of
Paris. 1 If it be not incompatible with other arrangements, would
you favour us with it, supposing you have any set already opened?
You may depend upon its being in careful hands.
‘I remain, Sir, your ob t. humble Se t.
‘J. AUSTEN.’
‘Hans Place, December 11 (1815).°
DEAR SIR,–– As I find that “Emma” is advertised for publication
as early as Saturday next, I think it best to lose no time in
settling all that remains to be settled on the subject, and adopt
this method as involving the smallest tax on your time.
‘In the first place, I beg you to understand that I leave the
terms on which the trade should be supplied with the work
entirely to your judgment, entreating you to be guided in every
such arrangement by your own experience of what is most likely
to clear off the edition rapidly. I shall be satisfied with whatever
you feel to be best. The title-page must be “Emma, dedicated by
permission to H.R.H. the Prince Regent.” And it is my particular
wish that one set should be completed and sent to H.R.H. two or
three days before the work is generally public. It should be sent
under cover to the Rev. J. S. Clarke, Librarian, Carlton House. I
shall subjoin a list of those persons to whom I must trouble you to
forward also a set each, when the work is out; all unbound,° with
“From the Authoress” in the first page.
‘I return you, with very many thanks, the books you have so
obligingly supplied me with. I am very sensible, I assure you, of
1 This must have been ‘Paul’s Letters to his Kinsfolk’ [published by Murray in
1815].