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SENSE
AND
SENSIBILITY
by
Jane Austen
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

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