Sense and Sensibility
by Jane Austen 1775–1817
The book, and the century it came out of.
Two sisters, one who says everything she feels and one who says almost nothing, are left with a small income and an unreliable supply of suitors. Austen’s first published novel already has the machinery complete: money discussed with total accuracy, feeling observed without mercy, and comedy that never spares the person we are meant to like. She published it anonymously, as “By a Lady”. Illustrated with 60 full-page plates — paintings by Dall, Barret and Sr. among them.
With the title of Sense and Sensibility is connected one of those minor problems which delight the cummin-splitters[3] of criticism.
Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen, complete and unabridged. Spelling and punctuation follow present-day American usage; the sentences, the paragraphs and the voice are the author’s, word for word.
It was written in another era and may carry attitudes a reader today will find dated. They are kept for the sake of the work and do not reflect the views of this house.
- Series
- Love & Society
- Format
- Ebook
- Extent
- about 368 pages
- Reading time
- about 7 hours
- Illustrations
- Full-page plates, credited
- Text
- Complete, unabridged
- Language
- en
- This edition
- 2026
- ISBN
- 9785501831773
60 paintings are bound into this edition
Six of them are shown here, taken from the volume itself. Each is reproduced full page and named with its painter and year.
Published 1811, at the family’s own risk
Austen published it “by a Lady”, on commission — meaning she carried the financial risk herself and would have had to cover the loss. She was thirty-five, unmarried, and had no income of her own.
That is the situation the novel is about. English law let an estate pass to the nearest male heir, and a widow and her daughters could be turned out of the house they had lived in all their lives with an allowance decided by the man who inherited. Austen’s readers did not need this explained; a reader now generally does.
This book in culture: 6 versions
Most people meet a book like this one on a screen first. Here is what was made of it — and none of these is the book.
The whole afterlife of Sense and Sensibility — screen, stage and beyond →
- 1996 Sense and Sensibility Ang Lee
- 2000 Kandukondain Kandukondain Rajiv Menon
- 2008 Sense and Sensibility John Alexander miniseries
- 2011 From Prada to Nada Angel Gracia
- — Sense and Sensibility TV program
- — Sense and Sensibility Rodney Bennett TV series
A page from this edition
Not a mock-up: this page is taken from the finished volume. The ornament above the chapter belongs to its shelf and to no other, the opening letter is set as a drop capital, and the plate below carries the name of the painter and the year.
Both photographed from the finished volume.
Sense and Sensibility, first published 1811, issued in this edition by Aeneas Press in 2026 on the Love & Society shelf. Newly set, with the ornament of its series above each chapter and a drop capital on the opening page. Illustrated with full-page plates, each named with its painter.
Published as an ebook and not issued in print by this house; it carries one ISBN, 9785501831773, and is supplied worldwide. This edition — its setting, its ornament, its cover art, and the selection and attribution of its plates — © 2026 Aeneas Press.
Questions readers ask
- Is this the whole of Sense and Sensibility?
- Yes — complete and unabridged. Nothing is cut, condensed or paraphrased. This is the book, not a summary of it.
- What exactly did you change?
- The spelling and the punctuation follow present-day American usage. Jane Austen's sentences are untouched — same words, same order, same rhythm.
- Are the pictures really in the book?
- Yes. The edition carries full-page plates bound into the text, each one named with its painter and the year it was made. Six of them are shown on this page.
- How long is it?
- About 368 pages, which is roughly about 7 hours of reading.
- What do I actually get?
- An illustrated ebook with its own ISBN, sold worldwide. One file, yours to keep, readable on any device.
