The work is rather too light and bright and sparkling: it wants shade

Jane Austen's second published novel Pride and Prejudice (1813) was an immediate success. Its first edition, which consisted of approximately 1,500 copies, was quickly sold out and a second edition followed later that same year. Originally titled First Impressions, Austen wrote the book between October 1796 and August 1797 when she was 20-21 years old. A few months after she had finished it, her father George sent a letter to the prestigious publisher Thomas Cadell, asking if he would consider reviewing the manuscript. Cadell declined, without even reading it, and the book was consequently shelved for more than a decade. Austen significantly revised the manuscript between 1811 and 1812 and next submitted it to a different publisher. It was Thomas Egerton who ultimately agreed to publish it (having also previously published Austen's Sense and Sensiblity (1811)). On 28 January 1813, the novel came out under the new title Pride and Prejudice, appearing in a three-volume edition (at that time a standard format for novels). 

The day after Pride and Prejudice was published, Jane Austen wrote a letter to her elder sister Cassandra. Obviously excited about the publication of her novel, Austen told her sister that she just received a copy of her "own darling child". She went on to mention that the advertisement for her book appeared in the paper that day, listing the price as 18 shillings for the three-volume set. While the book would sell very well, royalties from the sales did not go to Austen. Prior to publication of Pride and Prejudice, she had sold the copyright to Egerton for £110 (although she actually wanted £150). Her publisher bore the financial risk but would also keep all the profits from the sales. From the first two editions alone, Egerton reportedly made a profit of about £450, in sharp contrast to the £110 Austen had received for giving up the copyright.

"Miss B." referenced in the letter is Miss Benn, Austen's neighbour in Chawton. Miss Benn was at the Austen house when Pride and Prejudice arrived in the post. Austen's mother and Austen herself took turns reading chapters aloud to their neighbour, with Miss B. seemingly admiring the novel's heroine, Elizabeth Bennet. 

Chawton, Friday (January 29, 1813)

I hope you received my little parcel by J. Bond on Wednesday evening, my dear Cassandra, and that you will be ready to hear from me again on Sunday, for I feel that I must write to you to-day. I want to tell you that I have got my own darling child from London. On Wednesday I received one copy sent down by Falkener, with three lines from Henry to say that he had given another to Charles and sent a third by the coach to Godmersham.... The advertisement is in our paper to-day for the first time: 18s. He shall ask 1l.1s. for my two next, and 1l.8s. for my stupidest of all. Miss B. dined with us on the very day of the book's coming, and in the evening we fairly set at it, and read half the first vol. to her, prefacing that, having intelligence from Henry that such a work would soon appear, we had desired him to send it whenever it came out, and I believe it passed with her unsuspected. She was amused, poor soul! That she could not help, you know, with two such people to lead the way; but she really does seem to admire Elizabeth. I must confess that I think her as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print, and how I shall be able to tolerate those who do not like her at least, I do not know. There are a few typical errors; and a "said he," or a "said she," would sometimes make the dialogue more immediately clear; but "I do not write for such dull elves" as have not a great deal of ingenuity themselves. The second volume is shorter than I could wish, but the difference is not so much in reality as in look, there being a larger proportion of narrative in that part. I have lop't and crop't so successfully, however, that I imagine it must be rather shorter than "Sense and Sensibility" altogether. Now I will try and write of something else. ...

As said, the book was popular with readers upon publication, and also critics were positive about it. There were fellow writers, however, who would later criticise Pride and Prejudice, including Charlotte Brontë (read more in this previous post) and Mark Twain, the latter commenting: "Everytime I read ‘Pride and Prejudice’ I want to dig [Austen] up and beat her over the skull with her own shin-bone.” (One wonders why he would re-read the book if he hated it?) 

Although Jane Austen herself was satisfied with Pride and Prejudice, she also felt that the novel was "rather too light and bright and sparkling" and that it required a bit of "shade". She talks about this in the following excerpt, again addressed to Cassandra, her sister, closest friend and confidante. 

Chawton, Thursday (February 4).

My dear Cassandra,

Your letter was truly welcome, and I am much obliged to you for all your praise; it came at a right time, for I had had some fits of disgust. Our second evening's reading to Miss B. had not pleased me so well, but I believe something must be attributed to my mother's too rapid way of getting on: though she perfectly understands the characters herself, she cannot speak as they ought. Upon the whole, however, I am quite vain enough and well satisfied enough. The work is rather too light and bright and sparkling: it wants shade; it wants to be stretched out here and there with a long chapter of sense, if it could be had; if not, of solemn specious nonsense, about something unconnected with the story,—an essay on writing, a critique on Walter Scott, or the history of Buonaparte, or something that would form a contrast, and bring the reader with increased delight to the playfulness and epigrammatism of the general style.... The greatest blunder in the printing that I have met with is in page 220, v. 3, where two speeches are made into one. There might as well be no suppers at Longbourn; but I suppose it was the remains of Mrs. Bennet's old Meryton habits. ...

Pride and Prejudice was published anonymously (“By the Author of Sense and Sensibility”), just like Jane Austen had published all her novels anonymously during her lifetime. In December 1817, after Austen's death, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion were published together in one edition, which included a biographical notice written by Austen's brother Henry. In it, Jane Austen was named as the author of her novels for the first time.

Source letters: Jane Austen, Her Life and Letters: A Family Record by William Austen-Leigh and Richard Arthur Austen-Leigh (1913)

Via:Project Gutenberg

Image top: Mr. Darcy proposes to Elizabeth Bennet, illustrated by Charles Edmund Brock

Image bottom: Title page from the first edition of volume I of Pride and Prejudice

Source images: Wikimedia Commons