The Novels and Letters of Jane Austen: Northanger Abbey

The Novels and Letters of Jane Austen, 1915, a digitized book on the Internet Archive, contains illustrations by C.E. and H.M. Brock.  Click on the link to read Northanger Abbey.

“The General attended her himself to the street door, making her one of the most graceful bows she had ever beheld when they parted.”

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Jane Austen Illustrator C.E. Brock and his Equally Talented Brother, H.M. Brock

At the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century, the Brock Brothers, Charles Edmund and Henry Matthew, created the illustrations that we have come to associate with Jane Austen’s novels (C.E.) and other classics (H.M.). Find an excellent short description of the differences in the brothers’ styles in the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum link below.

Charles Brock (1870-1938), a skilled colourist who studied art briefly with sculptor Henry Wiles, is best known for his line work and delicate illustrations for Jane Austen’s novels. This PDF New York Times article from 1912, To Please the Eye, offers a contemporary and glowing review of one of his illustrated novels. Charles shared a studio with his younger brother Henry, who was born in 1875. Henry studied at the Cambridge School of Art and by the early 1900s was one of Britain’s most popular illustrators. The younger brother lived until the 1960’s, and some of his vintage illustrations are still quite fresh today

Learn more about the brothers in the links below:

• The Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum: Charles Edmund Brock and Henry Matthew Brock.

• Click here for more information and a contemporary assessment about the brothers in English Book-illustration of Today By Rose Esther Dorothea Sketchley, Alfred W. Pollard, 1903.

• C.E. Brock: List of illustrated books

• Three C.E. Brock illustrations

• C.E. Brock: A Moment’s Rest

• Modern illustrators of the Regency period

• Pride and Prejudice illustrations by C.E. Brock, Molland’s

• H.M. Brock: List of illustrated books

• The Online Books Page: H. M. Brock

Illustration: C.E. Brock, Emma

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