A RARE first edition of Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice in three volumes has sold today for £25,000 at auction.

At the same sale at Sotheby’s in London, a first edition copy of the author’s first published novel Sense and Sensibility, also in three volumes, also sold for £25,000.

It is unclear who the buyers were.

Daily Echo:

The rare first edition of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice sold today for £25,000.

Since Pride and Prejudice was first published in 1813 it has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide.

Austen sold the copyright for the novel for just £110 after she had originally asked for £150.

The author, who lived in Southampton and then settled at Chawton in Hampshire, paid for Sense and Sensibility to be published and also paid the publisher, Thomas Egerton, a commission on sales. She ended up making a profit on the first edition of £140.

Daily Echo:

The rare first edition of Pride and Prejudice sold today for £25,000.