In conjunction with Brona @This Reading Life and her yearlong #ReadingAusten25 project, The Classics Club is hosting a Sync Read (or readalong) of all six of Jane Austen’s novels, in chronological order) throughout 2025.
- January 2025 – read Sense and Sensibility (1811) with your guest host Brona
- March 2025 – read Pride and Prejudice (1813) with your guest host Meredith
- May 2025 – read Mansfield Park (1814) with your guest host Mary
- July 2025 – read Emma (1816) with your guest host Christina
- September 2025 – read Northanger Abbey (1818) with your guest host Adam B.
- November 2025 – read Persuasion (1818) with your guest host Adam S.
January is all about Sense and Sensibility.
Sense and Sensibility was first published in 1811 anonymously, By A Lady.
Jane Austen wrote the first draft of the novel in epistolary form perhaps as early as 1795 when she was about 19 years old. Novels-in-letters was a style she was playing with at this time, as Lady Susan also dates from this time (1794) and Pride and Prejudice more than likely began life as epistolary fiction in 1796/7.
Her working title was Elinor and Marianne.
In November 1797, Austen began working on her manuscript again and converted it into a narrative (just thinking about the work involved in making this dramatic change makes my head spin).
In 1809/10 she gave it a final edit before submitting it to the publisher Thomas Egerton of the Military Library publishing house in London, with her brother, Henry’s assistance. Egerton accepted the manuscript for publication in three volumes. Austen not only paid to have the book published but also paid the publisher a commission on sales. Jane Austen made £140 in sales from the first edition of Sense and Sensibility. About £24,000 in today’s money. --Brona
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