Jane Austen

Sense and Sensibility Jane Austen

Publisher Marketing: Sense and Sensibility is a novel by Jane Austen, and was her first published work when it appeared in 1811 under the pseudonym A Lady. A work of romantic fiction, better known as a comedy of manners, Sense and Sensibility is set in southwest England between 1792 and 1797, and portrays the life and loves of the Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne. The novel follows the young ladies to their new home, a meagre cottage on a distant relative's property, where they experience love, romance and heartbreak. The philosophical resolution of the novel is ambiguous: the reader must decide whether sense and sensibility have truly merged. Jane Austen wrote the first draft of the novel in the form of a novel-in-letters (epistolary form) sometime around 1795 when she was about 19 years old, and gave it the title, Elinor and Marianne. She later changed the form to a narrative and the title to Sense and Sensibility. By changing the title, Austen added philosophical depth to what began as a sketch of two characters. The title of the book, and that of her next published novel, Pride and Prejudice (1813), may be suggestive of political conflicts of the 1790s. In 1811, Thomas Egerton of the Military Library publishing house in London accepted the manuscript for publication, in three volumes. Austen paid for the book to be published and paid the publisher a commission on sales. The cost of publication was more than a third of Austen's annual household income of 460 (about 15,000 in 2008 currency). She made a profit of 140 (almost 5,000 in 2008 currency) on the first edition, which sold all 750 printed copies by July 1813. A second edition was advertised in October 1813. Review Citations: People Weekly 04/11/2011 pg. 58 (EAN 9780140378504, Paperback) Library Journal 11/01/1996 (EAN 9780745127699, Analog Audio Cassette) Library Journal 02/01/1996 pg. 104 (EAN 9780679601951, Hardcover) Wilson Fiction Catalog 01/01/2006 pg. 35 (EAN 9780679409878, Hardcover) Wilson Senior High Core Col 01/01/2007 pg. 722 (EAN 9780679409878, Hardcover) Wilson Fiction Catalog 01/01/2010 pg. 24 (EAN 9780679409878, Hardcover) Wilson Senior High Core Col 01/01/2011 pg. 876 (EAN 9780679409878, Hardcover) Wilson Fiction Catalog 01/01/2014 pg. 28 (EAN 9780679409878, Hardcover) Entertainment Weekly 12/09/2011 pg. 77 (EAN 9780143106524, Paperback) Contributor Bio:  Austen, Jane Born in 1775, Jane Austen published four of her six novels anonymously. Her work was not widely read until the late nineteenth century, and her fame grew from then on. Known for her wit and sharp insight into social conventions, her novels about love, relationships, and society are more popular year after year. She has earned a place in history as one of the most cherished writers of English literature.