Jane Austen "By the author of "Sense and Sensibility"" and Austen's name never appeared on her books during her lifetime. Egerton then published "Pride and Prejudice", a revision of "First Impressions", in January 1813. Austen sold the copyright to "Pride and Prejudice" to Egerton for £110. To maximise profits, he used cheap paper and set the price at 18 shillings. He advertised the book widely and it was an immediate success, garnering three favourable reviews and selling well. Had Austen sold "Pride and Prejudice" on commission, she would had made a profit of £475, or twice her father's annual income. By October
Reception history of Jane Austen Austen saw themselves as discriminating readers—they were a cultured few. This became a common theme of Austen criticism during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Philosopher and literary critic George Henry Lewes articulated this theme in a series of enthusiastic articles in the 1840s and 1850s. In "The Novels of Jane Austen", published anonymously in "Blackwood's Magazine" in 1859, Lewes praised Austen's novels for "the economy of easy adaptation of means to ends, with no aid from superfluous elements" and compared her to Shakespeare. Arguing that Austen lacked the ability to construct a plot, he still celebrated her dramatisations: "The