Add MS 65381

Mostly autograph. This is the third of the surviving three volumes of Jane Austen's juvenilia; ''Volume the First'' is in the Bodleian Library, Oxford (MS Don.e.7) and ''Volume the Second'' is in the British Library (Add. 59874). All contain copies, with some later additions and revisions, of original manuscripts which do not survive. On the inner front cover (f. ii), Jane Austen''s father, the Rev. George Austen, has noted in pencil: ''Effusions of Fancy by a very Young Lady consisting of Tales in a Style entirely new''. The contents page (f. 1) is signed ''Jane Austen May 6th 1792''; the dedication of ''Catharine'' (originally entitled ''Kitty'') to Cassandra Austen (f. 16v) is dated ''Steventon August 1792''; and at the end of ''Evelyn'', the last few pages of which (ff. 12-15) are in an unidentified hand, is the date ''August 19th 1809''. This hand appears again towards the end of ''Catharine'' (ff. 63v-64); the last two pages of the story, which is unfinished, are in the hand of Jane Austen''s nephew, James Edward Austen Leigh (ff. 64v-65). Four pages loosely inserted at the end of the volume (ff. 66-69), containing a contribution to ''Evelyn'', are in the hand of Jane Austen''s eldest niece, Jane Anna Elizabeth Lefroy, and are signed with her initials. See R. W. Chapman, Volume the Third by Jane Austen (Oxford, 1951); notes by him, dated 28 and 30 July 1950, are inserted at the end of the volume (ff. iii, iv). See also B. C. Southam, ''Interpolations to Jane Austen''s Volume the Third'', in Notes and Queries, vol. 207 (May 1962), pp. 185-187. Dedication to James Edward Austen Leigh, in the hand of Cassandra Austen, at f. 1. Purchased, with the aid of a grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, at Sotheby''s, 27 Sept. 1988, lot 108.

Paper; ff. v+69. Old pagination 1-127. 202 x 163mm. Binding of vellum with ''Volume the Third'' on the front cover and ''aft. 18'' (perhaps referring to the writer''s age) at the top of the spine, both in Jane Austen''s hand.

includes:

• f. ii Reverend George Austen, father of Jane Austen: Note by Rev. George Austen: n.d.
• ff. 64v-65 James Edward Austen Leigh, nephew of Jane Austen: Part of Jane Austen''s ''Catherine'' , in the hand of James Edward Austen Leigh: n.d.
• ff. 66-69 Jane Anna Elizabeth Lefroy, eldest niece of Jane Austen: Contribution to Jane Austen''s ''Evelyn'' by Jane Anna Elizabeth Lefroy: n.d.: Autogr.