It was, however, at Steventon that the real foundations of her fame were
laid. There some of her most successful writing was composed at such an
early age as to make it surprising that so young a woman could have
acquired the insight into character, and the nice observation of manners
which they display. 'Pride and Prejudice,' which some consider the most
brilliant of her novels, was the first finished, if not the first begun.
She began it in October 1796, before she was twenty-one years old, and
completed it in about ten months, in August 1797. The title then
intended for it was 'First Impressions.' 'Sense and Sensibility' was
begun, in its present form, immediately after the completion of the
former, in November 1797 but something similar in story and character had
been written earlier under the title of 'Elinor and Marianne;' and if, as
is probable, a good deal of this earlier production was retained, it must
form the earliest specimen of her writing that has been given to the
world. 'Northanger Abbey,' though not prepared for the press till 1803,
was certainly first composed in 1798.
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