The author: "This little tale was begun at first merely for my own amusement. It is published that I may reconcile my conscience to the time which it has employed, by making it in some degree useful. Let not the term so implied provoke a smile! If my book is read, its uses to the author are obvious. Nor is a work of fiction necessarily unprofitable to the readers." Jane Austen comments about this novel in a letter to her sister: “I am looking over Self Control again, & my opinion is confirmed of its’ being an excellently-meant, elegantly-written Work…”  - Summary by Author and Jane Austen

Laura Montreville is a well-born and religious girl, brought up in Scotland by her widowed father. She is pursued by Colonel Hargrave, a libertine, who makes an offer of marriage which Laura, not knowing any better, declines at first, saying she will marry him in two years time if he reforms his wicked ways. The book follows the fortunes of Laura, who suffers impoverishment, illness and humiliation, all the while tormented by Hargrave who has no intention of waiting the stipulated two years and who eventually shows himself in his true colours. -