Page:Jane Austen (Sarah Fanny Malden 1889).djvu/52

 When Pride and Prejudice was finished and given to the family circle, Mr. Austen was much struck by the story, and determined to make an effort to get it published. Accordingly, in November 1797, he wrote to Mr. Cadell, the well-known London publisher, as follows:

,

I have in my possession a manuscript novel, comprising 3 vols., about the length of Miss Barney's Evelina. As I am well aware of what consequence it is that a work of this sort sh$d$ make its first appearance under a respectable name, I apply to you. I shall be much obliged therefore if you will inform me whether you choose to be concerned in it, what will be the expense of publishing it at the author's risk, and that you will venture to advance for the property of it, if on perusal it is approved of. Should you give any encouragement I will send you the work.

I am, Sir, your humble servant, .

Steventon, near Overton, Hants,

1st Nov., 1797.

Was Mr. Cadell already overwhelmed with novels in imitation of Evelina, or had he made some unlucky ventures in that line, or was he offended by the epithet "respectable" which Mr. Austen applied to him? It is impossible to tell now; but by return of post, and without having seen a line of the book, he declined to undertake it on any terms, and Pride and Prejudice remained unknown to the public till sixteen years later. Probably Mr. Austen made a mistake in not sending the MS. direct to the publisher at first, for if Mr. Cadell had glanced at the first chapter of it, he must have seen it was no ordinary novel.

Nevertheless, this was not the only unsuccessful attempt at publication which befell Jane Austen. Six years later, in 1803, while living at Bath, she offered