Overview

Sense and Sensibility was the first of Jane Austen's novels to be published. Athough it is not considered by many critics to be the most brilliant of her works, this novel has much to recommend it. The narrative introduces us to two sisters. They are born in a large house in the south of England, but because laws of inheritance at the time favoured sons rather than daughters, the sisters together with their mother are compelled to leave their native place and to move far away to the south west. The two sisters are very unlike each other. Elinor, the elder is sensible and is able at all times to exercise self-control. Marianne, the younger, is a convinced devotee of the Romantic Age. Her overriding characteristics are feeling and passion, and as a result some of her behaviour is of questionable propriety. Her nature leads her to fall desperately in love with a young man who is unworthy of her affection. Furthermore in her suffering she is wholly indifferent to the wellbeiing of her mother and sister. The elder sister suffers as well from unrequited love, but she is determined at all times not to let her misery affect her family. Also of interest in the novel is way in which honorable young men in the narrative are severely limited by the conventions of the age. For example, no man may openly discredit another simply to advance his own happiness. As well as the protagonists the reader is presented with a number of minor characters, all different from one another and depicted with the author's customary perspicacity and irony.

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