Jane Austen

Sense and Sensibility Jane Austen

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