Jane Eyre:

£8,500 · Offered by Shapero Rare Books

last of the 'three-deckers' A scarce lifetime edition in a contemporary binding, and the last of the three-volume sets of Charlotte Brönte's classic Gothic novel, Jane Eyre. After several rejections from various publishers for The Professor, Charlotte Brontë concentrated her attention on Jane Eyre, finishing her 'fair copy' on March 16th and delivering the manuscript to Smith, Elder Co. on 19th August 1847. She made it clear to the publisher that she would not revise again: 'I know I should only further injure what may be already defective. Perhaps too the first part of "Jane Eyre" may suit the public taste better than you anticipate - for it is true and Truth has a severe charm of its own. Had I told all [underlined - author's emphasis] the truth, I might indeed have made it far more exquisitely painful...' (Margaret Smith, The Letters of Charlotte Brönte, vol. I, pp539-40). But the novel was received enthusiastically by their reader William Smith Williams and by the head of the firm, George Smith, and it was printed on the 19th October. The third edition followed the critical and commercial success of the first, with Brönte noting in a letter to George Smith of 7th November 1848: 'I have received your letter containing a remittance of £100. I think I am chiefly glad of it for the proof it seems to afford that the 3rd edition of "Jane Eyre" does not lie a dead weight on your hands. I was afraid this might be the case, and it would chagrin me to think that any work of "Currer

• Binding: Hardcover

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