WONDERFUL DISCOVERY THAT CONNECTS SOME LITERARY DOTS.

that an early biographer accused him of contributing more “to the demoralization of society than any prince recorded in the pages of history.”

The bill of sale for Sense and Sensibility was discovered by Nicholas Foretek, a first-year Ph.D student in history at the University of Pennsylvania, who was combing through the Prince Regent’s papers as part of his research into connections between late 18th-century political figures and the publishing world.

The Prince Regent was known to have literary interests, if not necessarily of the high-minded sort. In 1788, the same year his father became incapacitated by mental illness, the prince secretly bought the newspaper The Morning Post, to stop it from publishing embarrassing information about his love life.

He also spent profligately on books for his grand library at Carlton House, his opulent home on Pall Mall in London. “Debt is

For sheer archival sex appeal (and publicity), it’s hard to beat even a modest-seeming Austen find.

“There are few private archives in the world to rival this one for the depth and richness of materials on the Anglo-American 18thcentury world,” said Karin Wulf, the director of the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture at the College of William & Mary, the project’s main U.S. partner. “To find something relating to Austen is a thrilling bonus.”

To fevered Janeites (and perhaps Hollywood screenwriters), the discovery of the Prince Regent’s early interest might be the seed of a fanciful historical romantic comedy in which the rakish royal book-stalks the tarttongued, independent-minded (and never-married) commoner. But the real-life connection between the Prince Regent and Austen is delectably awkward social comedy enough.