I have
no doubt that I, and my sisters and cousins, in our visits to Chawton,
frequently disturbed this mystic process, without having any idea of the
mischief that we were doing; certainly we never should have guessed it by
any signs of impatience or irritability in the writer.
As so much had been previously prepared, when once she began to publish,
her works came out in quick succession. 'Sense and Sensibility' was
published in 1811, 'Pride and Prejudice' at the beginning of 1813,
'Mansfield Park' in 1814, 'Emma' early in 1816; 'Northanger Abbey' and
'Persuasion' did not appear till after her death, in 1818. It will be
shown farther on why 'Northanger Abbey,' though amongst the first
written, was one of the last published. Her first three novels were
published by Egerton, her last three by Murray. The profits of the four
which had been printed before her death had not at that time amounted to
seven hundred pounds.
I have no record of the publication of 'Sense and Sensibility,' nor of
the author's feelings at this her first appearance before the public; but
the following extracts from three letters to her sister give a lively
picture of the interest with which she watched the reception of 'Pride
and Prejudice,' and show the carefulness with which she corrected her
compositions, and rejected much that had been written:--
Chawton, Friday, January 29 (1813).
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