Sense and Sensibility

A little about the story

A change in inheritance leaves the Dashwood women with fewer resources and much less control over their circumstances. For sisters Elinor and Marianne, the move into a smaller social world brings new acquaintances and sharply different hopes about love. Elinor usually tries to contain her feelings, while Marianne believes that strong emotion deserves to be expressed without apology. Neither approach offers a dependable defense against disappointment or misunderstanding.

Austen follows their courtships through visits, confidences, promises, and the consequences of information that is only partly shared. Financial expectations shape the choices available to almost everyone, even when they are discussed in the language of affection or good manners. The novel’s comedy comes from precise observation rather than an easy victory of reason over feeling. As the sisters learn more about the people around them, their own apparent differences become less simple, and the question of how to judge a person’s character becomes as important as the question of whom to marry.

Things You May Not Know About Sense and Sensibility

• Austen’s first published novel. Sense and Sensibility appeared in 1811, before Pride and Prejudice and the other novels published during her lifetime.
• An anonymous beginning. Its first title page attributed the work to A Lady rather than naming Jane Austen as its author.
• Three Dashwood sisters. Elinor and Marianne dominate the narrative, but their younger sister Margaret also belongs to the displaced Dashwood household.
• The title offers a tension. Sense and sensibility describe competing habits of judgment and feeling, but the sisters do not remain perfect opposites throughout the story.
• Money is part of the plot. Inheritance arrangements, incomes, and the cost of maintaining a household repeatedly affect the novel’s apparently personal decisions.