The main output will be a critical edition delivered in complementary electronic and print forms. As a first stage, we have developed an electronic archive consisting of page scans of all the extant manuscript fiction linked to transcriptions searchable by a number of routes. Transcriptions are displayed in a layered, multivalent format amenable to detailed computational analysis by means of the richness of the underlying XML mark up. The online edition is being disseminated to the general academic community via a website. At a later stage, the print edition will be prepared using XSLT transformations from the underlying mark up. The print edition will synthesize within a reading space the analytic functionality of the electronic and will be enhanced by richer annotation, discursive essays on the genesis and composition of the manuscript works, and consideration of their relationship to Austen’s printed fiction.

A transcription tool, developed in partnership with the Bodleian Library, Oxford, uses Austen’s fiction manuscript corpus as a pilot to train students in manuscript transcription.