In December 1813, nearly a year after Pride and Prejudice was published, Sarah Harriet Burney, half-sister of the more famous Frances, wrote to a friend:

Burney then adds, ‘I have the three vols now in the house, and know not how to part with them. I have only just finished, and could begin them all over again with pleasure.’ Sarah Harriet may have been one of the first readers to feel that the freshness of Jane Austen's novel would not fade with re-reading and that the second time round it might be even more rewarding. A like-minded contemporary of hers was William Gifford, the editor of the Quarterly Review and right-hand man of the most prestigious publisher of the time, John Murray. He first tells Murray in November 1814 that having ‘for the first time, looked into Pride & Prejudice’ he finds it ‘really a very pretty thing’, and then in September or October 1815 he writes that ‘I have lately read it again – tis very good’. He is saying that this novel is certainly something other than a genteel romance aimed at the circulating library market, and encouraging Murray to add Jane Austen to his list – which he did.