groups. The first three--"Sense
and Sensibility," "Pride and Prejudice," and "Northanger
Abbey"--were all written, in first draft, at any rate, between
1792 and 1798. These are the novels composed during the
author's residence at Steventon, which she left in 1801. There
succeeded an interval of practically fourteen years
(1798-1812), during which time the novelist let her mind lie
absolutely fallow. As a natural consequence of the
comparatively secluded life which Jane Austen led, the society
with which she deals in her novels is a rather restricted one.
It is the world of the country gentleman and of the upper
professional class. From a very early age Jane Austen had a
taste for writing tales, and the first draft of "Sense and
Sensibility "--then called "Elinor and Marianne"--was composed
as early as 1792. The book was recast under its present title
between 1797 and 1798, and again revised prior to its
publication in 1811. In addition to the six novels on which
her fame is based--all of which were issued anonymously--Jane
Austen has to her credit some agreeable "Letters," a fragment
of a story called "The Watsons," and a sort of novelette which
bears the name of "Lady Susan."

_I.--The Dashwoods of Norland Park_

Mr. Henry Dashwood, of Norland Park, Sussex, died leaving his widow and
his three daughters, Elinor, Marianne and Margaret, to the generosity of
Mr. John Dashwood, his son by his first wife and the heir to his estate.
Mr. John, who, apart from the family inheritance, had received one
fortune from his mother and another with his wife, was at first disposed
to increase the portions of his sisters by giving them a thousand pounds
apiece; but under the persuasion of his wife he finally resolved that it
would be absolutely unnecessary, if not highly indecorous, to do more
for his father's widow and children than such kind of neighbourly acts
as looking out for a comfortable small house for them, helping them to
remove their things, and sending them presents of fish and game whenever
they were in season.

Taking account of this resolve, as expressed in Mr. John Dashwood's
frequent talk of the increasing expenses of housekeeping, and of the
perpetual demands made upon his purse, and exasperated, too, by the
manifest disapprobation with which Mrs. John Dashwood looked upon the
growing attachment between her own