Roof Beam Reader
Adam Burgess
The Folio Society Loves Austen! #AustenInAugustRBR
We here at The Folio Society are excited to join the Austen in August festivities this year with a special post about some of our Austen editions, and with special prices on two of Austen’s most beloved works! And be sure to read the entire post for something very special!
About Emma: Appearing in 1815, Emma was Jane Austen’s fourth published novel, written in a burst of confidence following the success of Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice. The Folio Society’s illustrated edition to mark the novel’s bicentenary, with a specially commissioned introduction by Fay Weldon, whose Letters to Alice: On First Reading Jane Austen’s Fiction has become a classic introduction to Austen’s works. Weldon describes how ‘a hint of success and a whiff of praise’ may have helped bring Austen to the peak of her powers as an artist.
Austen famously said of Emma: ‘I am going to take a heroine whom nobody but myself will much like.’ In this she was proved wrong. Pride and Prejudice may be her most famous novel, Persuasion her most deeply affecting, but for many, Emma is her greatest; the most perfectly balanced between comedy and insight, sparkle and depth. Witty, headstrong Emma Woodhouse, more interested in making matches for others than falling in love herself, is a wholly delightful heroine. The secondary characters – the impressionable Harriet, egotistical Mr Elton and Emma’s gentle, hypochondriac father – are just as unforgettable.
About the Illustrator: Sam Wolfe Connelly is a young American artist who previously illustrated the Folio edition of The Great Gatsby. He has captured the grace and elegance of the period. This edition is published in series with Pride and Prejudice. It is presented in a metallic blue slipcase bearing the novel’s famous first line, blocked in gold type.
About Pride and Prejudice: ‘I had not known you a month before I felt that you were the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed on to marry.’ One of the world’s favourite books, Pride and Prejudice has long been regarded as a classic romance. In Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy, Jane Austen created the greatest pair of sparring lovers since Shakespeare’s Beatrice and Benedick. This sparkling comedy of manners features an inimitable cast of characters including the obsequious Mr Collins, the autocratic Lady Catherine de Bourgh, and Mrs Bennet, the most embarrassing mother in literature.
The award-winning Balbusso twins have contributed eight exquisite illustrations to this edition, as well as a striking cover design. The novel’s celebrated first line is blocked in gold on the slipcase. In a new introduction, the author Sebastian Faulks praises ‘a novel of almost boundless wit and charm that has withstood film and television adaptations and attempts to define it as a “fairy tale” or a “rom-com”.’
As you can see, we’re crazy about Austen, so much so that we have two new releases coming out this fall: Sense and Sensibility and the reissue of A Memoir of Jane Austen. Keep your eyes peeled for these two excellent pieces of the Austen legacy!
Congratulations to our two random winners, Darlene and Jenna!
In the meantime, The Folio Society is offering up one beautiful edition of Emma to a lucky TWO participants in our Austen in August event! All you have to do to be considered is leave a comment on this post with a thought about Austen and/or any of her works (maybe something about what you’ve read this year or in previous years?). Giveaway closes August 22nd and is open only to those who registered for the event by August 5th.
Roof Beam Reader 
So glad to see Folio participating in this event! My Pride and Prejudice with the Balbusso illustrations is one of my most treasured possessions. I would love to have a chance at the new edition of Emma as well. I reread the book this year and I agree that it’s perhaps Austen’s most balanced work — and that Emma isn’t unlikeable, only fallible and very human. Thanks for the great giveaway!
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These Folio editions of Jane Austen’s books are stunning; I could do a little weep looking at them xD Thanks for sharing the info about these new editions, they are absolutely gorgeous ❤
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I’m looking forward to my first reading of Emma and this Folio edition would be gorgeous on my shelf!
My favorite Austen so far, (I am a newbie), is Northanger Abbey. I’m making my way slowly through them all.
Thanks for the great offer!
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Those editions look *gorgeous*. Seems appropriate for her work somehow — from the era of fine libraries and leather bindings. Aside from watching the Lizzie Bennet Diaries/Emma Approved adaptations, I’ve only read Persuasion. It was slow going at first, but by the end I was ooohing at Anne and Wentworth’s interactions and romance. Makes me wonder if she’d have revised it heavily if she’d had more time.
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These editions are as precious as the stories themselves! I have just finished reading a book about Jane Austen, and she was even more remarkable than I had thought. I think I understand her writing much better now, and so I am looking forward to rereading Emma and Sense and Sensibility over the next few months and trying again to read her very early novels, which up until now have never held my interest.
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Regretting more than ever not signing up in time—gah! These are some beautiful editions. 🙂
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I have been reading Jane Austen’s books for many years, beginning with Pride and Prejudice, which I thought was wonderful at age 10 and still think so ‘many’ years later, but I also love Persuasion, which was one of the books I studied for A Level English. This month I’m reading Lady Susan, The Watsons and Sanderton for the first time – a real treat.
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You know, I’ve been touting Persuasion/P&P as my favorite Austen novels, but I’m starting to think Northanger Abbey might be better than Persuasion. This is a hard decision for me to make, but things may have taken a turn this round of Austen in August. Anyway, Emma is a gem and I would be lucky to win such a lovely book. Thanks for the giveaway, Folio! It would look perfect next to my other editions. 🙂
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Ha! Welcome to the Northanger Abbey fan club! 😉
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At last! It was easily third place, but now I’m thinking it’s second. How can it not be!?
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I am drooling over those Folio editions. Just gorgeous! I just reread Emma for this event and one thing I noticed was how much room Austen gave Emma to grow as a person. In all of her other novels the hero or heroine learn lessons or see their faults, but with Emma she has the chance to truly mature and begin to value others’ happiness over her own. It’s a wonderful book!
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That is a beautiful edition! And what gorgeous illustrations! I’m reading Austen from Cover to Cover which documents the evolution of Jane Austen’s books and I don’t recall seeing the Folio editions. They definitely belong in there though!
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Sense and Sensibility is always what comes to mind when I think of Jane Austen. I think it’s because I actually learned of Austen when I first saw Ang Lee’s excellent 1995 adaptation of the book. I read the book after seeing the film and it instantly solidified as my favorite. Jane had such a talent for depicting the societal norms of the time, especially in Sense and Sensibility, when the Dashwood sisters (and their mother) are left with no status when their father passes away.
I have yet to read Emma (shocker, I know), but I know I will enjoy it when I do. Thank you for the wonderful giveaway of this beautiful edition.
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What a beautiful edition. I’m due for an EMMA re-read.
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I really liked Emma from the first time I read it and this years I am a little bit sad about the scarcity of events for its bicentenary! 😦 I find your version very beautiful and the artists that made the illustrations very skilled!
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