Sense and Sensibility , livre ebook

Original by Jane Austen
Retold by Pauline Francis
ReadZone Books Limited



First published in this edition 2018
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ISBN 978-1-78322-735-8
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Chapter One    A New Home
Chapter Two    An Accident on the Hill
Chapter Three Marianne Falls in Love
Chapter Four   Broken Hearts
Chapter Five    Terrible Truths
Chapter Six     Willoughby’s True Character
Chapter Seven A Secret No More
Chapter Eight An Act of Kindness
Chapter Nine   Marianne is in Danger
Chapter Ten    Two Weddings
Introduction
Jane Austen was born in 1775 in Hampshire, where her father was a rector. She was one of eight children, but especially close to her only sister, Cassandra, and Henry, the second son of the family. She was educated partly at home and partly at boarding school where both girls nearly died from typhus.
Jane’s home was full of books and lively discussion. Her friends and family often staged plays, many of them comedies, which developed much of Jane’s strong sense of humour. Jane went on to write short novels and stories, which she always read to her family.
In 1800, when Jane was twenty-five years old, her father retired and the family moved to Bath. She did not enjoy town life and wrote little in the years there. Then her father died unexpectedly and after many moves, the family settled in Chawton, Hampshire, in 1809.
From this time, Jane published many successful novels: Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813) and Mansfield Park (1814).
Sense and Sensibility was her first novel. It tells the story of the newly widowed Mrs Dashwood and her three daughters who are left with no permanent home and very little money. They are offered a cottage in Devonshire. Here Elinor, the oldest daughter, pines privately for Edward Ferrars, left behind in Sussex, and Marianne, her younger sister, openly falls in love with a visitor, the dashing and handsome John Willoughby. As both deal with their situations in different ways, they find happiness at last.
Jane Austen died in 1816, at the age of forty-one, and two of her novels – Emma and Persuasion – were published after her death.
CHAPTER ONE
A New Home
The Dashwood family owned a large estate at Norland Park, in Sussex. In time, this was left to Mr John Dashwood, who was married with a young son. He promised to make sure that his stepmother and his three sisters, Elinor, Marianne and Margaret, were well provided for.
‘I shall give each of my sisters one thousand pounds a year,’ he thought. ‘I can afford to be generous.’
John Dashwood might have kept his promise if he had not married a rather selfish and mean-minded woman. She installed herself as the new mistress of Norland Park straight after her father-in-law’s funeral, causing her mother-in-law great distress.
Elinor, the oldest daughter of nineteen and the most sensible, persuaded her mother not to leave immediately, but to wait until a suitable house in the neighbourhood could be found.
Mrs John Dashwood was not pleased about her husband’s intention to be generous to his sisters. After all, they were only his half-sisters? How could he rob his own son of three thousand pounds a year?
‘I promised my father, Fanny,’ her husband replied. ‘However, it is true that he did not suggest any particular amount of money.’
‘He did not know what he was saying before he died,’ his wife said. ‘And when your sisters marry, they will have their own money.’
‘Well, I could give them five hundred each, I suppose,’ he said. ‘Or I could give my mother a sum each year.’
‘She might live for a long time. She is scarcely forty,’ Fanny replied.
‘Mmm … it would be better to give them fifty pounds every so often,’ he said.
‘I do not think that your father intended you to give them any money at all,’ his wife said.
‘You are right, my dear. When my mother moves, I shall help her with some items of furniture.’
And so it was decided. Mr and Mrs John Dashwood would do no more for their close relations than any good neighbour or friend.

***

Mrs Dashwood and her daughters remained at Norland Park for several months. She was impatient to be gone, but there was no house to be found that suited her income. During that difficult time, Elinor and Fanny Dashwood’s brother became attached to one another.
His name was Edward Ferrars. He was a pleasing young gentleman, although not handsome. He was also shy and longed for a quiet life. His parents had great plans for him. Fortunately, his younger brother, Robert proved more promising.
Marianne was somewhat surprised by her sister’s choice. She found Edward lacking in spirit and fire. He had little taste for music or drawing.
‘I could not be happy with a man whose taste did not coincide with my own,’ she said to her mother. ‘Oh, mama, the more I see of the world, the more I am convinced that I shall never see a man whom I can really love. I require too much!’
‘Remember, my love, you are not yet seventeen,’ her mother replied. ‘It is yet too early in life to despair of not finding such happiness.’
Fanny Dashwood managed to insult her mother-in-law without even trying.
‘My mother expects both her sons to marry well,’ she said. ‘She will not look well on any attempt to draw Edward in.’
‘My daughter has no intention of drawing in anybody ,’ Mrs Dashwood replied.
‘I shall not stay here any longer,’ she said to herself. ‘I shall not expose my dear Elinor any longer to such worthless remarks.’
***