Sense and Sensibility

This was Austen's first published novel. She wrote a version of it, called Elinor and Marianne, as a teenager, and re worked it into a novel later on. The novel is the story of 2 sisters, Elinor, the elder, is sensibile and controls her emotions. Marianne is passionate and thinks that social conventions are of less importance than feelings. There is another sister Margaret who is not very clever. The Dashwood family are landed gentry and inherit a large estate Norland Park from an uncle. However, their father dies only a year after inheriting and his family are not left well off. He has a son, John by an earlier marriage and the estate passes to his son's son, Harry, so the 3 girls and their mother are left with only a small legacy. John is married to a very callous young woman and while he thinks of helping his sisters by giving them an annuity, he ends by deciding that they dont need any more money. The Dashwood ladies find a cottage on the estate of a relative, Sir John Middleton and move there, where they can live more cheaply.