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SENSE AND SENSIBILITY
by Jane Austen (1811)
Chapter 1
The family of Dashwood had long been
settled in Sussex.
Their estate was large, and their residence
was at Norland Park, in the centre of their
property, where, for many generations, they
had lived in so respectable a manner as to
engage the general good opinion of their
surrounding acquaintance.
The late owner of this estate was a single
man, who lived to a very advanced age, and
who for many years of his life, had a
constant companion and housekeeper in his
sister.
But her death, which happened ten years
before his own, produced a great alteration
in his home; for to supply her loss, he
invited and received into his house the
family of his nephew Mr. Henry Dashwood,
the legal inheritor of the Norland estate,
and the person to whom he intended to
bequeath it.
In the society of his nephew and niece, and
their children, the old Gentleman's days
were comfortably spent.
His attachment to them all increased.
The constant attention of Mr. and Mrs.
Henry Dashwood to his wishes, which
proceeded not merely from interest, but
from goodness of heart, gave him every
degree of solid comfort which his age could
receive; and the cheerfulness of the
children added a relish to his existence.
By a former marriage, Mr. Henry Dashwood
had one son: by his present lady, three
daughters.
The son, a steady respectable young man,
was amply provided for by the fortune of
his mother, which had been large, and half
of which devolved on him on his coming of
age.
By his own marriage, likewise, which
happened soon afterwards, he added to his
wealth.
To him therefore the succession to the
Norland estate was not so really important
as to his sisters; for their fortune,
independent of what might arise to them
from their father's inheriting that
property, could be but small.
Their mother had nothing, and their father
only seven thousand pounds in his own
disposal; for the remaining moiety of his
first wife's fortune was also secured to
her child, and he had only a life-interest
in it.
The old gentleman died: his will was read,
and like almost every other will, gave as
much disappointment as pleasure.
He was neither so unjust, nor so
ungrateful, as to leave his estate from his
nephew;--but he left it to him on such
terms as destroyed half the value of the
bequest.
Mr. Dashwood had wished for it more for the
sake of his wife and daughters than for
himself or his son;--but to his son, and
his son's son, a child of four years old,
it was secured, in such a way, as to leave
to himself no power of providing for those
who were most dear to him, and who most
needed a provision by any charge on the
estate, or by any sale of its valuable
woods.
The whole was tied up for the benefit of
this child, who, in occasional visits with
his father and mother at Norland, had so
far gained on the affections of his uncle,
by such attractions as are by no means
unusual in children of two or three years
old; an imperfect articulation, an earnest
desire of having his own way, many cunning
tricks, and a great deal of noise, as to
outweigh all the value of all the attention
which, for years, he had received from his
niece and her daughters.
He meant not to be unkind, however, and, as
a mark of his affection for the three
girls, he left them a thousand pounds a-
piece.
Mr. Dashwood's disappointment was, at
first, severe; but his temper was cheerful
and sanguine; and he might reasonably hope
to live many years, and by living
economically, lay by a considerable sum
from the produce of an estate already
large, and capable of almost immediate
improvement.
But the fortune, which had been so tardy in
coming, was his only one twelvemonth.
He survived his uncle no longer; and ten
thousand pounds, including the late
legacies, was all that remained for his
widow and daughters.
His son was sent for as soon as his danger
was known, and to him Mr. Dashwood
recommended, with all the strength and
urgency which illness could command, the
interest of his mother-in-law and sisters.
Mr. John Dashwood had not the strong
feelings of the rest of the family; but he
was affected by a recommendation of such a
nature at such a time, and he promised to
do every thing in his power to make them
comfortable.
His father was rendered easy by such an
assurance, and Mr. John Dashwood had then
leisure to consider how much there might
prudently be in his power to do for them.
He was not an ill-disposed young man,
unless to be rather cold hearted and rather
selfish is to be ill-disposed: but he was,
in general, well respected; for he
conducted himself with propriety in the
discharge of his ordinary duties.
Had he married a more amiable woman, he
might have been made still more respectable
than he was:--he might even have been made
amiable himself; for he was very young when
he married, and very fond of his wife.
But Mrs. John Dashwood was a strong
caricature of himself;--more narrow-minded
and selfish.
When he gave his promise to his father, he
meditated within himself to increase the
fortunes of his sisters by the present of a
thousand pounds a-piece.
He then really thought himself equal to it.
The prospect of four thousand a-year, in
addition to his present income, besides the
remaining half of his own mother's fortune,
warmed his heart, and made him feel capable
of generosity.-- "Yes, he would give them
three thousand pounds: it would be liberal
and handsome!
It would be enough to make them completely
easy.
Three thousand pounds! he could spare so
considerable a sum with little
inconvenience."-- He thought of it all day
long, and for many days successively, and
he did not repent.
No sooner was his father's funeral over,
than Mrs. John Dashwood, without sending
any notice of her intention to her mother-
in-law, arrived with her child and their
attendants.
No one could dispute her right to come; the
house was her husband's from the moment of
his father's decease; but the indelicacy of
her conduct was so much the greater, and to
a woman in Mrs. Dashwood's situation, with
only common feelings, must have been highly
unpleasing;--but in HER mind there was a
sense of honor so keen, a generosity so
romantic, that any offence of the kind, by
whomsoever given or received, was to her a
source of immovable disgust.
Mrs. John Dashwood had never been a
favourite with any of her husband's family;
but she had had no opportunity, till the
present, of shewing them with how little
attention to the comfort of other people
she could act when occasion required it.
So acutely did Mrs. Dashwood feel this
ungracious behaviour, and so earnestly did
she despise her daughter-in-law for it,
that, on the arrival of the latter, she
would have quitted the house for ever, had
not the entreaty of her eldest girl induced
her first to reflect on the propriety of
going, and her own tender love for all her
three children determined her afterwards to
stay, and for their sakes avoid a breach
with their brother.
Elinor, this eldest daughter, whose advice
was so effectual, possessed a strength of
understanding, and coolness of judgment,
which qualified her, though only nineteen,
to be the counsellor of her mother, and
enabled her frequently to counteract, to
the advantage of them all, that eagerness
of mind in Mrs. Dashwood which must
generally have led to imprudence.
She had an excellent heart;--her
disposition was affectionate, and her
feelings were strong; but she knew how to
govern them: it was a knowledge which her
mother had yet to learn; and which one of
her sisters had resolved never to be
taught.
Marianne's abilities were, in many
respects, quite equal to Elinor's.
She was sensible and clever; but eager in
everything: her sorrows, her joys, could
have no moderation.
She was generous, amiable, interesting: she
was everything but prudent.
The resemblance between her and her mother
was strikingly great.
Elinor saw, with concern, the excess of her
sister's sensibility; but by Mrs. Dashwood
it was valued and cherished.
They encouraged each other now in the
violence of their affliction.
The agony of grief which overpowered them
at first, was voluntarily renewed, was
sought for, was created again and again.
They gave themselves up wholly to their
sorrow, seeking increase of wretchedness in
every reflection that could afford it, and
resolved against ever admitting consolation
in future.
Elinor, too, was deeply afflicted; but
still she could struggle, she could exert
herself.
She could consult with her brother, could
receive her sister-in-law on her arrival,
and treat her with proper attention; and
could strive to rouse her mother to similar
exertion, and encourage her to similar
forbearance.
Margaret, the other sister, was a good-
humored, well-disposed girl; but as she had
already imbibed a good deal of Marianne's
romance, without having much of her sense,
she did not, at thirteen, bid fair to equal
her sisters at a more advanced period of
life.