Jane Austen’s first published novel, released in 1811, follows sisters Elinor and Marianne Dashwood as they navigate financial precarity, romantic disappointment, and the very different temperaments that give the novel its title. Elinor’s measured prudence and Marianne’s passionate sensibility are tested by a world in which women’s futures depended almost entirely on marriage and money.
Austen’s irony is at its most pointed here, and her portrait of a society that constrains its women while moralizing about their choices remains sharply relevant. Download this free EPUB from Better Gutenberg and discover or revisit one of the great Regency-era novels.