The AHRC funded project Jane Austen’s fiction manuscripts represent the first significant body of holograph evidence surviving for any British novelist.
They represent every stage of her writing career and a variety of physical states: working drafts, fair copies, and handwritten publications for private circulation.
Digitization enables their virtual reunification and will provides scholars with the first opportunity to make simultaneous ocular comparison of their different physical and conceptual states, facilitating intimate and systematic study of Austen’s working practices across her career.
Many of the Austen manuscripts are frail; open and sustained access has long been impossible for conservation and location reasons.
The digital edition will include in the first instance all Jane Austen’s known fiction manuscripts and any ancillary materials held with them.
Visit the project website for more information.