All new 6x9 inch paperback edition. "Sense and Sensibility" (considered the first "modern" English novel) portrays the life and loves of the Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne, in southwest England between 1792 and 1797. The novel follows the young ladies from their comfortable life on the Norland Park estate to their new home, a meagre cottage on a distant relative's property, where they experience love, romance and heartbreak. Jane Austen (1775-1817) was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature. Her realism, biting irony and social commentary have gained her historical importance among scholars and critics. Cover painting by John Hoppner, 1795.