Sense and Sensibility (novel)

Sense and Sensibility

Title page from the original 1811 edition
Author	Jane Austen
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre	Romance novel
Publisher	Thomas Egerton, Military Library (Whitehall, London)
Publication date	1811
OCLC	44961362
Followed by	Pride and Prejudice

Sense and Sensibility is a novel by Jane Austen, published in 1811. It was published anonymously; By A Lady appears on the title page where the author's name might have been. It tells the story of the Dashwood sisters, Elinor (age 19) and Marianne (age 16 1/2) as they come of age. They have an older, stingy half-brother, John, and a younger sister, Margaret, 13.

The novel follows the three Dashwood sisters as they move with their widowed mother from the estate on which they grew up, Norland Park, to their new home, Barton Cottage. The four women must move to a meagre cottage on the property of a distant relative, where they experience love, romance, and heartbreak. The novel is likely set in southwest England, London and Sussex between 1792 and 1797.

The novel, which sold out its first print run of 750 copies in the middle of 1813, marked a success for its author. It had a second print run later that year. The novel continued in publication throughout the 19th, 20th and early 21st centuries and has many times been illustrated, excerpted, abridged, and adapted for stage and film.

Henry Dashwood, his second wife, and their three daughters live for many years with Henry's wealthy bachelor uncle. That uncle decides, in late life, to will his property first to Henry, then to Henry's first son John, and then to John's three-year-old son Harry. The uncle dies, but Henry lives just a year after that. On Henry's death, the new owner of the estate, then, is John Dashwood, the child of Henry's first marriage. Henry's second wife, Mrs Dashwood, and their daughters, Elinor, Marianne and Margaret, inherit only a small income. On his deathbed, Mr Henry Dashwood extracts a promise from his son John to take care of his half-sisters. But before Henry is long in the grave, John's greedy wife, Fanny, persuades her husband to renege on the promise, appealing to his concerns about diminishing his own son Harry's inheritance and to the fact that his sisters are but half-blood and therefore undeserving of his family loyalty. She claims that providing the promised help for Mrs. Dashwood and her daughters will unfairly impoverish their son, which is hardly possible given the size of John Dashwood's inheritance and subsequent income. John and Fanny immediately move in as the new owners of Norland, while the Dashwood women are treated as unwelcome guests by a spiteful Fanny. Mrs Dashwood seeks somewhere else to live. In the meantime, Fanny's brother, Edward Ferrars visits Norland and soon forms an attachment with Elinor. Fanny disapproves of the match and offends Mrs Dashwood by implying that Elinor must be motivated by his expectations of coming into money.