Sense and Sensibility(理智与情感)



Jane

Austen

VOLUME I

CHAPTER I

he family of Dashwood had long been settled in Sussex.

Their estate was large, and their residence was at Norland

Park, in the centre of their property, where, for many

generations, they had lived in so respectable a manner as to

engage the general good opinion of their surrounding

acquaintance. The late owner of this estate was a single man, who

lived to a very advanced age, and who for many years of his life,

had a constant companion and housekeeper in his sister. But her

death, which happened ten years before his own, produced a great

alteration in his home; for to supply her loss, he invited and

received into his house the family of his nephew Mr. Henry

Dashwood, the legal inheritor of the Norland estate, and the

person to whom he intended to bequeath it. In the society of his

nephew and niece, and their children, the old Gentleman’s days

were comfortably spent. His attachment to them all increased. The

constant attention of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Dashwood to his wishes,

which proceeded not merely from interest, but from goodness of

heart, gave him every degree of solid comfort which his age could

receive; and the cheerfulness of the children added a relish to his

existence.

By a former marriage, Mr. Henry Dashwood had one son: by his

present lady, three daughters. The son, a steady respectable young

man, was amply provided for by the fortune of his mother, which

had been large, and half of which devolved on him on his coming

of age. By his own marriage, likewise, which happened soon

afterwards, he added to his wealth. To him therefore the

succession to the Norland estate was not so really important as to

his sisters; for their fortune, independent of what might arise to

them from their father’s inheriting that property, could be but

small. Their mother had nothing, and their father only seven

thousand pounds in his own disposal; for the remaining moiety of

his first wife’s fortune was also secured to her child, and he had

only a life interest in it.

The old gentleman died; his will was read, and like almost every

other will, gave as much disappointment as pleasure. He was

neither so unjust, nor so ungrateful, as to leave his estate from his

nephew;―but he left it to him on such terms as destroyed half the

value of the bequest. Mr. Dashwood had wished for it more for the

sake of his wife and daughters than for himself or his son:―but to

his son, and his son’s son, a child of four years old, it was secured,

in such a way, as to leave to himself no power of providing for

those who were most dear to him, and who most needed a

provision by any charge on the estate, or by any sale of its valuable

woods. The whole was tied up for the benefit of this child, who, in

occasional visits with his father and mother at Norland, had so far

gained on the affections of his uncle, by such attractions as are by

no means unusual in children of two or three years old; an

imperfect articulation, an earnest desire of having his own way,

many cunning tricks, and a great deal of noise, as to outweigh all

the value of all the attention which, for years, he had received

from his niece and her daughters. He meant not to be unkind

however, and, as a mark of his affection for the three girls, he left

them a thousand pounds a-piece.

Mr. Dashwood’s disappointment was, at first, severe; but his

temper was cheerful and sanguine, and he might reasonably hope

to live many years, and by living economically, lay by a

considerable sum from the produce of an estate already large, and

capable of almost immediate improvement. But the fortune, which

had been so tardy in coming, was his only one twelvemonth. He

survived his uncle no longer; and ten thousand pounds, including

the late legacies, was all that remained for his widow and

daughters.

His son was sent for as soon as his danger was known, and to

him Mr. Dashwood recommended, with all the strength and

urgency which illness could command, the interest of his mother-

in-law and sisters.

Mr. John Dashwood had not the strong feelings of the rest of

the family; but he was affected by a recommendation of such a

nature at such a time, and he promised to do every thing in his

power to make them comfortable. His father was rendered easy by

such an assurance, and Mr. John Dashwood had then leisure to

consider how much there might prudently be in his power to do

for them.

He was not an ill-disposed young man, unless to be rather cold

hearted and rather selfish, is to be ill-disposed: but he was, in

general, well respected; for he conducted himself with propriety in

the discharge of his ordinary duties. Had he married a more

amiable woman, he might have been made still more respectable

than he was:―he might even have been made amiable himself; for

he was very young when he married, and very fond of his wife. But

Mrs. John Dashwood was a strong caricature of himself;―more

narrow-minded and selfish.

When he gave his promise to his father, he meditated within

himself to increase the fortunes of his sisters by the present of a

thousand pounds a-piece. He then really thought himself equal to

it. The prospect of four thousand a-year, in addition to his present

income, besides the remaining half of his own mother’s fortune,

warmed his heart, and made him feel capable of generosity.―

“Yes, he would give them three thousand pounds: it would be

liberal and handsome! It would be enough to make them

completely easy. Three thousand pounds! he could spare so

considerable a sum with little inconvenience.”―He thought of it

all day long, and for many days successively, and he did not

repent.

No sooner was his father’s funeral over, than Mrs. John

Dashwood, without sending any notice of her intention to her

mother-in-law, arrived with her child and their attendants. No one

could dispute her right to come; the house was her husband’s from

the moment of his father’s decease; but the indelicacy of her

conduct was so much the greater, and to a woman in Mrs.

Dashwood’s situation, with only common feelings, must have been

highly unpleasing;―but in her mind there was a sense of honour

so keen, a generosity so romantic, that any offence of the kind, by

whomsoever given or received, was to her a source of immoveable

disgust. Mrs. John Dashwood had never been a favourite with any

of her husband’s family; but she had had no opportunity, till the

present, of shewing them with how little attention to the comfort

of other people she could act when occasion required it.

So acutely did Mrs. Dashwood feel this ungracious behaviour,

and so earnestly did she despise her daughter-in-law for it, that, on

the arrival of the latter, she would have quitted the house for ever,

had not the entreaty of her eldest girl induced her first to reflect

on the propriety of going, and her own tender love for all her three

children determined her afterwards to stay, and for their sakes

avoid a breach with their brother.

Elinor, this eldest daughter, whose advice was so effectual,

possessed a strength of understanding, and coolness of judgment,

which qualified her, though only nineteen, to be the counsellor of

her mother, and enabled her frequently to counteract, to the

advantage of them all, that eagerness of mind in Mrs. Dashwood

which must generally have led to imprudence. She had an

excellent heart;―her disposition was affectionate, and her feelings

were strong; but she knew how to govern them: it was a

knowledge which her mother had yet to learn, and which one of

her sisters had resolved never to be taught.

Marianne’s abilities were, in many respects, quite equal to

Elinor’s. She was sensible and clever; but eager in every thing; her

sorrows, her joys, could have no moderation. She was generous,

amiable, interesting: she was every thing but prudent. The

resemblance between her and her mother was strikingly great.

Elinor saw, with concern, the excess of her sister’s sensibility;

but by Mrs. Dashwood it was valued and cherished. They

encouraged each other now in the violence of their affliction. The

agony of grief which overpowered them at first, was voluntarily

renewed, was sought for, was created again and again. They gave

themselves up wholly to their sorrow, seeking increase of

wretchedness in every reflection that could afford it, and resolved

against ever admitting consolation in future. Elinor, too, was

deeply afflicted; but still she could struggle, she could exert

herself. She could consult with her brother, could receive her

sister-in-law on her arrival, and treat her with proper attention;

and could strive to rouse her mother to similar exertion, and

encourage her to similar forbearance.

Margaret, the other sister, was a good-humoured, well-disposed

girl; but as she had already imbibed a good deal of Marianne’s

romance, without having much of her sense, she did not, at

thirteen, bid fair to equal her sisters at a more advanced period of life.

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