Publishing "Northanger Abbey": Jane Austen and the Writing Profession by Margie Burns (review)

Publishing "Northanger Abbey": Jane Austen and the Writing Profession provides illuminating and suggestive ways to understand the curious publishing history of Jane Austen's novel Northanger Abbey (1818), which has been the subject of much scholarly speculation. Austen sold her manuscript novel "Susan" to the Crosby Publishing House in 1803, but they never published it. In 1809, she wrote to Crosby inquiring as to its planned publication date, and Richard Crosby insisted "there was not any time stipulated [for its publication,] neither are we bound to publish it" (p. 129). It was not until 1816 that Austen sent Crosby the requisite ten pounds to buy back "Susan." Although she worked to revise the novel and wrote an advertisement to preface it, it was not published until December 1817, after her death. Margie Burns's work challenges the idea that what many have called Austen's "unpublished years" from 1803-1811 were a fallow period and suggests Austen's active engagement with and understanding of the publishing world around her (p. 3). Burns sets three goals for her study: to recognize the strength and perseverance of Austen as a writer when she was so quickly picked up by Crosby but then never published by them; to shed further light on Austen's writing process; and to inform today's readers about the publishing world around Austen.

A great strength of this study is how it draws upon new digitized sources (such as newspapers and magazines) to provide information that fleshes out our understanding of the supposed "unpublished years" of Austen. Access to and scrutiny of innumerable digitized sources helps provide new material and insights into the publishing world and business. Burns offers careful and extensive reading of advertisements, including those for "Susan," in newspapers, magazines, and end pages of other publications. The information she uncovers about the publishing world, and specifically the changing ownership and direction of Crosby Publishing, adds to our understanding of their purchase of "Susan" and then the refusal to publish it. Burns argues that this sequence of events was most likely attributable to a complex mixture of issues and unfortunate timing on Austen's part. For example, Burns suggests that the connections between Crosby and two editors he worked with, Frances Prevost and Francis Blagdon, led to him change his mind about publishing "Susan." While purchasing Austen's manuscript aligned with Crosby's mission to provide suitable reading material for "improvement" amongst an "educated audience," it ran counter to Prevost's and Blagdon's growing interest in and support of compilations (p. 32). Indeed, Burns shows how both editors had particularly praised The Spectator in their "Flowers of Literature," which put them at odds with Austen's critique in the "only a novel" passage of her manuscript (p. 24).

Burns offers an excellent discussion of why Austen chose Crosby as her publisher in chapter three, "Choosing her First Publisher," making some fascinating connections between Crosby and the Leigh-Perrot trial in which Austen's maternal aunt was accused of shop lifting twenty shillings worth of lace while in Bath. Burns argues that Austen was drawn to Crosby not only because he published books and authors opposed to slavery but also because he personally had not produced an account of or work about the Leigh-Perrot trial, saving her aunt from further public distress. Chapter five, "1809: A Different Susan," is particularly rich in providing new material and a compelling argument that the publication of another work entitled "Susan" prompted Austen to approach Crosby about her own manuscript, which had been languishing with them for six years. Burns then traces the timeline of advertisements for this other "Susan" alongside Austen family correspondence to make her case as to why Austen finally acted to resolve the delay in publishing her work. The appendix of newspaper advertisements is particularly helpful to navigate and order the sequence of events.

Burns clearly capitalizes on many of...