Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (Signet)
Paperback edition of Pride and Prejudice as published by Signet Classics from 1961 on. The typeface is Caslon No. 540 Italic. In the early 1920s, Thomas Maitland Cleland designed a series of complementary swash characters, but judging from ATF specimens, there was no such alternate for the letter J. Chances are that the swash J seen here was custom made by removing the bar from F.
The cover art isn’t credited or signed. In this period, cover designers working for Signet included James Hill and Milton Glaser.
From the back cover:
The romantic clash of two opinionated young people provides the sustaining theme of Pride and Prejudice. Vivacious Elizabeth Bennet is fascinated and repelled by the arrogant Mr. Darcy, whose condescending airs and acrid tongue have alienated her entire family. Their spirited courtship is conducted against a background of assembly-ball flirtations and drawing-room intrigues. Jane Austen’s famous novel captures the affectations of class-conscious Victorian families with matrimonial aims and rivalries. Her people are universal; they live a truth beyond time, change, or caricature. George Eliot called Jane Austen “the greatest artist that has ever written,” and Sir Walter Scott wrote of her work, “There is a truth of painting in her writings which always delights me.”
