What Did Elinor Dashwood Get for Marrying Edward Ferrars?

What did Elinor Dashwood get for marrying Edward Ferrars? We follow the money in Sense and Sensibility, from the small rectory at Delaford to "three hundred and fifty pounds a year", and read the ledger line by line, with every figure shown with its measure and its source. 00:00 What did Elinor Dashwood get for marrying Edward Ferrars? 00:33 How to read the ledger 02:25 One is my wealth 04:43 What Edward gave up 07:10 A small rectory at Delaford 09:36 Three hundred and fifty pounds a year 11:51 Ten thousand pounds, given with Fanny 14:27 The real women behind the ledger If you were Elinor, would three hundred and fifty pounds a year and a quiet rectory have been enough? Tell us in the comments. If you would like to open the next heroine's ledger with us, do subscribe. Educational content. Modern-money equivalents are estimates; measures and sources are listed above. Illustrations: public-domain archive prints (credited on screen) and original stylised illustrations made for the channel. The narration uses a synthetic voice. SOURCES Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility (1811), Project Gutenberg #161: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/161 MeasuringWorth, "Five Ways to Compute the Relative Value of a UK Pound Amount, 1270 to Present": https://www.measuringworth.com/calcul... and "Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain": https://www.measuringworth.com/datase... Dollar conversion: Bank of England Interactive Database, series XUAAUSS. Income of benefices (1831 inquiry, twenty years after the novel): P. J. Welch, Journal of Ecclesiastical History 5(2), 1954: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journa... Tithes and glebe of a rector: Elizabeth Hawksley, "Jane Austen and the Clergy: How the System Worked": https://elizabethhawksley.com/jane-au... Cassandra Austen and Thomas Fowle: Wikipedia, "Cassandra Austen": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassand... Archive prints: Rowlandson, Godfrey and contemporaries, public domain; each source is credited on screen. Assumptions: prices are those of 1811, the year of publication. Modern equivalents are estimates by two measures (retail prices and average earnings), both shown on screen. The reading of the £10,000 "given with Fanny" is how most readers take the text, not a stated fact. Austen's own life is not used to explain the novel. #SenseAndSensibility #JaneAusten #ElinorDashwood