The Complete Novels by Jane Austen: Rare Book of the Week

A new limited edition of all six of Jane Austen’s major novels is published tomorrow by The Folio Society, encased in woven silk-and-cotton covers with original illustrations by Sarah Young.

The Complete Novels by Jane Austen is published to celebrate the 250th anniversary of her birth, with a new foreword by historian Lucy Worsley.

Each of the six novels in the 750 limited edition includes a woodcut frontispiece, five linocut illustrations, and 15 vignettes by Young. The set also featues first edition text with introductions by Elena Ferrante, Sebastian Faulks, Worsley, Fay Weldon, Val McDermid, and Siri Hustvedt, as well as a monogram specially commissioned from calligrapher Ruth Rowland, and gilded edges, a ribbon marker.

The novels are covered in silk-and-cotton jacquard cloth specially woven by Stephen Walters, a luxury silk maker that weaves fabric for royal coronations and weddings, including the silk used in Princess Diana’s wedding dress. The six books are housed in a box designed by graphic designer Emily Benton and printed on Munken Pure paper.