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The problem is that novels from that era, especially if they weren't really, really popular, weren't published in large amounts and weren't put away carefully and preserved in nice wood-paneled libraries. Many of them were sold to circulating libraries, and read by many people, not returned, torn up, etc. and then when no one wanted to borrow them anymore, were very likely thrown away. They weren't considered worth preserving. They're hard to get hold of these days, so no one who cares about such things has had access to digitize them. Let's face it, for a long time it was thought by Austen scholars that she had made them all up! I looked through Chawton Library's collection, and they haven't digitized any of the horrid novels yet. The University of Virginia has them all, I believe, but no digital versions yet.
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