Sense and Sensibility

Sense and Sensibility

Title page from the original 1811 edition
Author Jane Austen
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Genre Romance novel
Publisher Thomas Egerton, Military Library (Whitehall, London)
Publication date
 1811
OCLC 44961362
Followed by Pride and Prejudice

Sense and Sensibility is a novel by Jane Austen, published in 1811. It was published anonymously; By A Lady appears on the cover page where the author's name might have been. It tells the story of the Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne, both of age to marry.

The novel follows the young women to their new home with their widowed mother, a meagre cottage on the property of a distant relative, where they experience love, romance and heartbreak. The novel is set in southwest England, London and Sussex between 1792 and 1797.[1]

The novel sold out its first print run of 750 copies in the middle of 1813, marking a success for its author, who then had a second print run later that year. The novel continued in publication throughout the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.

Plot summary

Because of primogeniture, when Mr Henry Dashwood dies, his house, Norland Park, passes directly to his son John, the child of his first wife. His second wife, Mrs Dashwood, and their daughters, Elinor, Marianne and Margaret, inherit only a small income. On his deathbed, Mr Dashwood extracts a promise from his son, to take care of his half-sisters. John's greedy wife, Fanny, soon persuades him to renege on the promise. John and Fanny immediately move in as the new owners of Norland, while the Dashwood women are treated as unwelcome guests. Mrs Dashwood seeks somewhere else to live. In the meantime, Fanny's brother, Edward Ferrars visits Norland and soon forms an attachment with Elinor. Fanny disapproves of the match and offends Mrs Dashwood with the implication that Elinor is motivated by money.

Mrs Dashwood moves her family to Barton Cottage in Devonshire, near the home of her cousin, Sir John Middleton. Their new home is modest but they are warmly received by Sir John and welcomed into local society—meeting his wife, Lady Middleton, his mother-in-law, Mrs Jennings and his friend, Colonel Brandon. Colonel Brandon is attracted to Marianne, and Mrs Jennings teases them about it. Marianne is not pleased as she considers the thirty-five-year-old Colonel Brandon an old bachelor, incapable of falling in love or inspiring love in anyone.

A 19th-century illustration by Hugh Thomson showing Willoughby cutting a lock of Marianne's hair

While out for a walk, Marianne gets caught in the rain and slips and sprains her ankle. The dashing John Willoughby sees the accident and assists her. Marianne quickly comes to admire his good looks and outspoken views on poetry, music, art, and love. His attentions lead Elinor and Mrs Dashwood to suspect that the couple are secretly engaged. Elinor cautions Marianne against her unguarded conduct, but Marianne refuses to check her emotions. Abruptly, Mr Willoughby informs the Dashwoods that his aunt, upon whom he is financially dependent, is sending him to London on business, indefinitely. Marianne is distraught and abandons herself to her sorrow.

Edward Ferrars pays a short visit to Barton Cottage but seems unhappy. Elinor fears that he no longer has feelings for her, but will not show her heartache. After Edward departs, Anne and Lucy Steele, the vulgar cousins of Lady Middleton, come to stay at Barton Park. Lucy informs Elinor in confidence of her secret four-year engagement to Edward Ferrars that started when he was studying with her uncle, and she displays proof. Elinor realises that Lucy's visit and revelations are the result of Lucy's jealousy and cunning calculation, and understands Edward's recent behavior towards her. She acquits Edward of blame and pities him for being held to a loveless engagement by his sense of honour.

Elinor and Marianne accompany Mrs Jennings to London. On arriving, Marianne rashly writes several personal letters to Willoughby, which go unanswered. When they meet at a dance, Mr Willoughby greets Marianne reluctantly and coldly, to her extreme distress. Soon Marianne receives a curt letter enclosing their former correspondence and love tokens, including a lock of her hair and informing her of his engagement to a young lady with a large fortune. Marianne is devastated. After Elinor has read the letter, Marianne tells her that she and Willoughby were never engaged, but she loved him and thought that he loved her.

Colonel Brandon visits the sisters and reveals to Elinor that Willoughby's aunt disinherited him after she learned that he had seduced Brandon's fifteen-year-old ward, Miss Williams, then abandoned her when she became pregnant. This is why he chose to marry for money rather than love. Brandon was in love with Miss Williams' mother as a young man, when she was his father's ward, but she was forced into an unhappy marriage to Brandon's brother that ended in scandal and divorce; Marianne strongly reminds him of her.

The Steele sisters come to London as guests of Mrs Jennings and after a brief acquaintance they are asked to stay at John and Fanny Dashwood's London house. Lucy sees the invitation as a personal compliment, rather than what it is, a slight to Elinor and Marianne who should have received such invitation first. Too talkative, Anne Steele betrays Lucy's secret. As a result, the Misses Steele are turned out of the house, and Edward is ordered to break off the engagement on pain of disinheritance. Edward refuses to comply and is immediately disinherited in favour of his brother, gaining respect for his conduct, and sympathy from Elinor and Marianne. Colonel Brandon shows his admiration by offering Edward the living of Delaford parsonage.

Mrs Jennings takes Elinor and Marianne to the country to visit her second daughter. In her misery over Willoughby's marriage, Marianne becomes dangerously ill. Willoughby arrives to repent and reveals to Elinor that his love for Marianne was genuine. He elicits Elinor's pity because his choice has made him unhappy, but she is disgusted by the callous way in which he talks of Miss Williams and of his own wife. He also reveals that his aunt forgave him after his marriage, meaning that if he had married Marianne he would have had both money and love.

When Marianne recovers, Elinor tells her of Willoughby's visit. Marianne realises that she could never have been happy with Willoughby's immoral, erratic, and inconsiderate nature. She values Elinor's conduct in her similar situation and resolves to model herself after Elinor's courage and good sense. Edward arrives and reveals that, after his disinheritance, Lucy jilted him in favour of his now wealthy brother, Robert. Edward and Elinor soon marry, and later Marianne marries Colonel Brandon, having gradually come to love him.

Characters

Main characters

Minor characters

Development of the novel

Jane Austen wrote the first draft of the novel in the form of a novel-in-letters (epistolary form) sometime around 1795 when she was about 19 years old, and gave it the title Elinor and Marianne. She later changed the form to a narrative and the title to Sense and Sensibility.[3] The title of the book, and that of her next published novel, Pride and Prejudice (1813), may be suggestive of political conflicts of the 1790s, as well as the movement from the Neoclassic to the Romantic Era (Elinor representing the Neoclassic, and Marianne representing the Romantic). [4]

Austen drew inspiration for Sense and Sensibility from other novels of the 1790s that treated similar themes, including Adam Stevenson's "Life and Love" (1785) which he had written about himself and a relationship that was not meant to be. Jane West's A Gossip's Story (1796), which features one sister full of rational sense and another sister of romantic, emotive sensibility, is considered to have been an inspiration as well. West’s romantic sister-heroine also shares her first name, Marianne, with Austen’s. There are further textual similarities, described in a modern edition of West's novel.[5]

Title

"Sense" means good judgment or prudence, and "sensibility" means sensitivity or emotionality. "Sense" is identified with the character of Elinor, while "sensibility" is identified with the character of Marianne. By changing the title, Austen added "philosophical depth" to what began as a sketch of two characters.[6]

Critical views

Austen biographer Claire Tomalin argues that Sense and Sensibility has a "wobble in its approach", which developed because Austen, in the course of writing the novel, gradually became less certain about whether sense or sensibility should triumph.[7] Austen characterises Marianne as a sweet lady with attractive qualities: intelligence, musical talent, frankness, and the capacity to love deeply. She also acknowledges that Willoughby, with all his faults, continues to love and, in some measure, appreciate Marianne. For these reasons, some readers find Marianne's ultimate marriage to Colonel Brandon an unsatisfactory ending.[8]

As quoted by the writers at Create Space "Other interpretations, however, have argued that Austen's intention was not to debate the superior value of either sense or sensibility in good judgment, but rather to demonstrate that both qualities are equally important, but must be in balance."[9] The novel is an early example of the category romance novel.[10]

The American scholar Rachel Brownstein wrote that the novel begins with the Dashwood sisters being disinherited and cast of their homes, and the narrator offers in the account of how this came to be that men would always use women and cast them aside when they are not longer convenient; that one's good character counts for nothing in a society dominated by greed, ingratitude and selfishness; and that one can behave badly yet still remain eminently respectable as one has money.[11] Brownstein that in a world where men are generally greedy, selfish, dishonest, and generally cold is "...a harsh one for young women".[12] The marriage of John and Fanny Dashwood is portrayed as devoid of love and held together only by greed with Mrs. Dashwood being "more narrow-minded and selfish" than her repulsive husband.[13] Likewise, Sir John and Lady Middleton are described as having a "total want of talent and taste" with Sir John's interests being only hunting while Lady Middleton's being spoiling her children.[14] Lady Middleton condemns the Dashwood sisters for being "satirical" despite the fact as the narrator notes that she does not know what the word satirical actually means.[15] Most of the gentry characters are in varying ways stupid, selfish and malicious with for example Mrs. Palmer breaking out laughing and saying "It is so ridiculous!" when she learns her husband has been elected to the House of Commons, Mrs. Jennings telling painfully unfunny jokes at the expense of Edward Ferrars and Sir John laughing at jokes and remarks that he does not really understand..[16]

Brownstein noted the dismal picture the novel draws of well-establish gentry families is not counterbalanced by the men who court the Dashwood sisters which has the effect of "further dimming the view of romantic love" as all three men have a "depressing similarity" to make the same mistakes as each had another relationship with another women and each leaves the Dashwood sisters with no explanation.[17] The interchangeability of Colonel Brandon, Willoughby, and Edward Ferrars is stressed by the fact that at various points in the novel the Dashwood sisters keep confusing one of the men for another.[18] Even the mother of the Ferrars brothers has trouble distinguishing between them as both brothers go through an "annihilation".[19] In this regard, Brownstein wrote that Marianne's insistence on an absolute, all-consuming romantic love for only one man once with no "second attachments" to another man ever being possible seems quixotic and absurd, all the more as Elinor points out that their father had married twice..[20] Brownstein noted that while Elinor is "judgemental" about Marianne's romantic creed, Colonel Brandon is more understanding, all the more so as Marianne reminds him of a woman he once loved and lost.[21]

The Dashwood sisters stand apart from this world as being virtually the only characters capable of intelligent thought and any sort of deep thinking.[22] Browstein wrote that the differences between the Dashwood sisters have been exaggerated, and in fact the sisters are more alike than they are different, with Elinor having "excellent heart" and capable of the same romantic passions as Marianne feels while Marianne has much sense as well.[23] Elinor is more reserved, more polite and less impulsive than Marianne who loves poetry, taking walks across picturesque landscapes and believes in intense romantic relationships, but it is very closeness between the sisters that allows these differences to emerge during their exchanges..[24]

Publication history

The three volumes of the first edition of Sense and Sensibility, 1811

In 1811, Thomas Egerton of the Military Library publishing house in London accepted the manuscript for publication in three volumes. Austen paid to have the book published and paid the publisher a commission on sales. The cost of publication was more than a third of Austen's annual household income of £460 (about £15,000 in 2008 currency).[25] She made a profit of £140 (almost £5,000 in 2008 currency)[25] on the first edition, which sold all 750 printed copies by July 1813. A second edition was advertised in October 1813.

The novel has been in continuous publication through to the 21st century as popular and critical appreciation of all the novels by Jane Austen slowly grew. The novel was translated into French by Madame Isabelle de Montolieu as Raison et Sensibilité.[26] Montolieu had only the most basic knowledge of English, and her translations were more of "imitations" of Austen's novels as Montolieu had her assistants provide a summary of Austen's novels, which she then translated into an embellished French that often radically altered Austen's plots and characters.[27] The "translation" of Sense and Sensibility by Montolieu changes entire scenes and characters, for example having Marianne call Willoughby an "angel" and an "Adonis" upon first meeting him, lines that not in the English original.[28] Likewise, the scene where Mrs. Dashwood criticizes her husband for planning to subsidise his widowed stepmother might be disadvantageous to "our little Harry", Mrs. Dashwood soon forgets about Harry and it is made apparent her objections are founded in greed; Montolieu altered the scene by having Mrs. Dashwood continuing to speak of "our little Harry" as the basis of her objections, completely changing her motives.[29] When Elinor learns the Ferrars who married Lucy Steele is Robert, not Edward, Montolieu adds in a scene where Edward, the Dashwood sisters and their mother all break down in tears where clasping hands that was not in the original..[30] Austen has the marriage of Robert Ferrars and Lucy Steele end well while Montolieu changes the marriage into a failure.[31]

Adaptations

The book has been adapted for film and television a number of times, including a 1981 serial for TV directed by Rodney Bennett; a 1995 film adapted by Emma Thompson and directed by Ang Lee; a version in Tamil called Kandukondain Kandukondain, released in 2000, starring Ajith Kumar (Edward Ferrars), Tabu (Elinor), Aishwarya Rai;[32] and a 2008 TV series on BBC adapted by Andrew Davies and directed by John Alexander.

Sense & Sensibility, the Musical (book and lyrics by Jeffrey Haddow and music by Neal Hampton) received its world premiere by the Denver Center Theatre Company in April 2013 staged by Tony-nominated director Marcia Milgrom Dodge. In 2014, the Utah Shakespeare Festival presented Joseph Hanreddy and J.R. Sullivan's adaptation of the novel. In 2016, the Bedlam theatrical troupe mounted a well-received minimalist production, adapted by Kate Hamill and directed by Eric Tucker, from a repertory run in 2014.[33]

In 2013, author Joanna Trollope published Sense & Sensibility: A Novel[34] as a part of series called The Austen Project by the publisher, bringing the characters into the present day and providing modern satire.[35]

See also


References

  1. ↑ Le Faye, Deirdre (2002). Jane Austen: The World of Her Novels. London: Frances Lincoln Publishers. p. 155. ISBN 0-7112-1677-0.
  2. ↑ Auerbach, Emily (2004). Searching for Jane Austen. London, England: The University of Wisconsin Press. p. 112. ISBN 0-299-20180-5 – via Google, Google Books. "...a man resembling "the hero of a favourite story"".
  3. ↑ Le Faye, Deirdre (2002). Jane Austen: The World of Her Novels. London: Frances Lincoln Publishers. p. 154. ISBN 0-7112-1677-0.
  4. ↑ Murray, Christopher John (2004). Encyclopedia of the Romantic Era: A-K. 1. Taylor and Francis Books. p. 41. ISBN 1-57958-361-X.
  5. ↑ Looser, Devoney (2015). Introduction. A Gossip's Story,. By West, Jane. Looser, Devoney; O'Connor, Melinda; Kelly, Caitlin, eds. Richmond, Virginia: Valancourt Books. ISBN 978-1943910151.
  6. ↑ Bloom, Harold (2009). Bloom's Modern Critical Reviews: Jane Austen. New York: Infobase Publishing. p. 252. ISBN 978-1-60413-397-4.
  7. ↑ Tomalin, Claire (1997). Jane Austen: A Life. New York: Random House. p. 155. ISBN 0-679-44628-1.
  8. ↑ Tomalin, Claire (1997). Jane Austen: A Life. New York: Random House. pp. 156–157. ISBN 0-679-44628-1.
  9. ↑ "Sense and Sensibility". Create Space. February 2014.
  10. ↑ Regis, Pamela (2007). A Natural History of the Romance Novel. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-3303-2.
  11. ↑ Brownstein, Rachel "Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice" pages 32-57 from The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997 page 45.
  12. ↑ Brownstein, Rachel "Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice" pages 32-57 from The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997 page 46.
  13. ↑ Brownstein, Rachel "Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice" pages 32-57 from The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997 page 46.
  14. ↑ Brownstein, Rachel "Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice" pages 32-57 from The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997 page 46.
  15. ↑ Brownstein, Rachel "Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice" pages 32-57 from The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997 page 43.
  16. ↑ Brownstein, Rachel "Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice" pages 32-57 from The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997 page 42.
  17. ↑ Brownstein, Rachel "Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice" pages 32-57 from The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997 page 47.
  18. ↑ Brownstein, Rachel "Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice" pages 32-57 from The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997 page 47.
  19. ↑ Brownstein, Rachel "Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice" pages 32-57 from The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997 page 47.
  20. ↑ Brownstein, Rachel "Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice" pages 32-57 from The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997 page 48.
  21. ↑ Brownstein, Rachel "Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice" pages 32-57 from The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997 page 48.
  22. ↑ Brownstein, Rachel "Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice" pages 32-57 from The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997 page 43.
  23. ↑ Brownstein, Rachel "Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice" pages 32-57 from The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997 page 43.
  24. ↑ Brownstein, Rachel "Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice" pages 32-57 from The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997 page 43.
  25. 1 2 Sanborn, Vic (10 February 2008). "Pride and Prejudice Economics: Or Why a Single Man with a Fortune of £4,000 Per Year is a Desirable Husband". Jane Austen's World. Retrieved 27 August 2016.
  26. ↑ King, Noel "Jane Austen in France" from Nineteenth-Century Fiction pages 1–28, Vol. 8, No. 1, June 1953 page 5.
  27. ↑ King, Noel "Jane Austen in France" from Nineteenth-Century Fiction pages 1–28, Vol. 8, No. 1, June 1953 page 5.
  28. ↑ King, Noel "Jane Austen in France" from Nineteenth-Century Fiction pages 1–28, Vol. 8, No. 1, June 1953 page 9.
  29. ↑ King, Noel "Jane Austen in France" from Nineteenth-Century Fiction pages 1–28, Vol. 8, No. 1, June 1953 pages 9-10.
  30. ↑ King, Noel "Jane Austen in France" from Nineteenth-Century Fiction pages 1–28, Vol. 8, No. 1, June 1953 page 16.
  31. ↑ King, Noel "Jane Austen in France" from Nineteenth-Century Fiction pages 1–28, Vol. 8, No. 1, June 1953 page 18.
  32. ↑ Literary Intermediality: The Transit of Literature Through the Media Circuit. Peter Lang. 2007. p. 76.
  33. ↑ Brantley, Ben. "Review: A Whirlwind of Delicious Gossip in ‘Sense & Sensibility’". New York Times. Retrieved 14 April 2016.
  34. ↑ Trollope, Joanna (2013). Sense & Sensibility: A Novel. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0007461769.
  35. ↑ Craig, Amanda (18 October 2013). "Book review: Sense & Sensibility, By Joanna Trollope". The Independent. Retrieved 15 September 2016.
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