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When Mr. Dashwood dies, he leaves his second wife and her three daughters at the mercy of his son and heir, John. John's wife convinces him to turn his step-mother and half-sisters out, and they move to a country cottage, rented to them by a distant relative. In their newly reduced circumstances Elinor and Marianne, the two eldest daughters, wrestle with ideas of romance and reality and their apparent opposition to each other. Elinor struggles in silent propriety, while Marianne is as violently romantic as her ideals. Life, however, teaches the girls to balance sense and sensibility in their approach to love and marriage.
Sense and Sensibility was Jane Austen's first novel to be published, in 1811. It has been adapted for film and television many times, most notably in Ang Lee's 1995 film adaptation.
This is the novel that allowed me to spread the wings of my feminine side and embrace a little chick-litting without having to feel any less of a man (not that this novel is chick-lit, or that I'm saying there's anything wrong with chick-lit...but I think you get the point). Before Jane Austen, I never would have thought it possible to craft a love story so exquisitely and nobly, avoiding all of the maudlin that is so often paired with romance books. But that isn't to say Jane Austen isn't sentimental (what would romance be without it?), but that she embraces her sentimentality with such a matronly deportment that it causes one to reassess all the negative connotations one may possess about women's literature, or at least it did for me. ( )
Much better than the movie. I did see the movie but wow this book blew me away. There is so much more detail in the book I would recommend to anyone. Especially young girls ( )
I'm won over a bit more towards Austenland after this one, following on from Pride and Prejudice. While naturally still entirely concerned with the lives of the idle, parasitic landed gentry class (though only fair to mention that a servant did get to speak a couple of lines here; one small step and all), there appeared a handful of Dickensian moments, which locate a similarity across the apparently vast gulf between the social conditions of the typical Dickens character and the typical Austen character, lying in a caustic description of human nature's faults in a passage taking the form of ironic approbation. For instance:
The whole of Lucy's behaviour in the affair, and the prosperity which crowned it, therefore, may be held forth as a most encouraging instance of what an earnest, an unceasing attention to self-interest, however its progress may be apparently obstructed, will do in securing every advantage of fortune, with no other sacrifice than that of time and conscience.
That's the sort of writing that amuses me most agreeably, and which Dickens absolutely excelled at. Most pleasing to find more of that in Sense and Sensibility, and hopefully more in her later novels?
The opening scene in which John Dashwood talks himself down in steps, with the invaluable assistance of his wife, in terms of what monetary gesture he should make to his half-sisters following the death of their father which left him most wealthy and them comparatively middle class (a reduction in status to the employ of only 4 servants, I believe), is pretty comic. The twist involving Lucy at back of the novel is quite good, I admit, I didn't see that coming, a nice change from the entirely predictable unfolding of Pride and Prejudice, although they end up in the same place: marriages and happily ever after. Ah well, this one only barely got over the line. The novel does drag somewhat in the middle for me, could have been a bit more swift in its arrival, but then anyone who enjoys Dickens has to grant the license in an otherwise highly creditable work. ( )
4.5/5 Two sisters who are complete opposites in character spend most of their time trying to understand one another as they struggle with their world and finding happiness and husbands. Both undergo changes and learn to meet each other halfway as they grow closer together. Austen's wit and savage commentary about the social norms of the day are evident here as in her other books. I adored Elinor and Marianne. Next, the movie! ( )
The family of Dashwood had been long settled in Sussex.
Quotations
Well, I am convinced that there is a vast deal of inconsistency in almost every human character.
... Marianne, who had the knack of finding her way in every house to the library, however it might be avoided by the family in general, soon procured herself a book.
People always live for ever when there is any annuity to be paid to them.
She had an excellent heart; -- her disposition was affectionate, and her feelings were strong; but she knew how to govern them: it was a knowledge which her mother had yet to learn, and which one of her sisters had resolved never to be taught.
His temper might perhaps be a little soured by finding, like many others of his sex, that through some unaccountable bias in favour of beauty, he was the husband of a very silly woman, - but she knew that this kind of blunder was too common for any sensible man to be lastingly hurt by it.
"Well, it is the oddest thing to me, that a man should use such a pretty girl so ill! But when there is plenty of money on one side, and next to none on the other, Lord bless you! they care no more about such things! - "
[...] after experiencing the blessings of *one* imprudent engagement, contracted without his mother's consent, as he had already done for more than four years, nothing less could be expected of him in the failure of *that*, than the immediate contraction of another.
Last words
Between Barton and Delaford, there was that constant communication which strong family affection would naturally dictate;—and among the merits and the happiness of Elinor and Marianne, let it not be ranked as the least considerable, that though sisters, and living almost within sight of each other, they could live without disagreement between themselves, or producing coolness between their husbands.
When Mr. Dashwood dies, he leaves his second wife and her three daughters at the mercy of his son and heir, John. John's wife convinces him to turn his step-mother and half-sisters out, and they move to a country cottage, rented to them by a distant relative. In their newly reduced circumstances Elinor and Marianne, the two eldest daughters, wrestle with ideas of romance and reality and their apparent opposition to each other. Elinor struggles in silent propriety, while Marianne is as violently romantic as her ideals. Life, however, teaches the girls to balance sense and sensibility in their approach to love and marriage.
Sense and Sensibility was Jane Austen's first novel to be published, in 1811. It has been adapted for film and television many times, most notably in Ang Lee's 1995 film adaptation.
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Jane Austen (I 775— I 8 I 7) imajo za eno največjih angleških pisateljic. Odlikuje Jo iskriv čut za družabno komedijo in bistro 01(0 za medsebojne človeške odnose, pri tem pa Je izvrstna slikarka družinskih ritualov in družabnih šeg svojega časa. V svojih romanih spretno prepleta Ijubezenska razmerja z dramo in družbeno satiro, njeni orisi pa presegajo vsakršen časovni okvir Zato ji še danes ne manjka bralcev, saj yse njene romane vVeliki Britaniji ponatiskujejo že ves as od njihovega prvega izida, niti gledalcev, saj so vsa njena literarna dela ekranizirali, nekatera celo večkrat. Umirajoči Henry Dashwood mora po zakonu posest izročiti sinu iz prvega zakona Johnu in njegovi soprogi Fanny. Dashwoodova druga žena in njune tri hčere, EIinor Marianne in Margaret se tako znajdejo brez strehe nad glavo in s komaj dovolj denarja za preživetje. Rozsodnost In rahločutnost je predvsem pripoved o dveh sestrah: stvarni, a ironični Elinor in strastní ter samosvoji Marianne, o zapletenih zadevah njunega ljubezenskega življenja ter boju s siromaštvom. V angleški družbi s konca osemnajstega stoletja, kjer najbolj cenijo bogastvo in družbeni prestiž, so ženskam zaprte yse poti do intelekĹualne in materialne samostojnosti, zato je poroka edino jamstvo, da na stara eta ne bosta v breme sorodnikom, To je prví objavljeni (čeprav ne tudi najprej napisani) roman Jane Austen, tudi tu pa se v vsej moči kaže pisateljičin dar, da s svojim pisanjem bralca ne spustí iz klešč radovednosti. Besedo na ovitku: Max Modic
VIRAGO EDITION: Marianne Dashwood subscribes to the fashionable cult of sensibility. Ardently avowing every fluctuation of emotion, she despises discretion and reticence. Her elder sister Elinor, whose feelings are no less sincere, is far more prudent and considerate and when her love for the shy, quiet Edward Ferrars is betrayed, she is sustained by her own calm dignity. The impetuous Marianne, however, scorns any concealment of her adoration for the dashing Willoughby... While giving a vivid portrayal of the society and manners of her time, both in the country and in London, Jane Austen's chief preoccupation, handled with sympathy as well as astringency, is the effect of differing ideals and expectatioins. Though she satirises Marianne's emotional excesses, she is even harder on hyprocisy, selfishness and mercenary snobbery, giving us merciless wit and a wonderful story.
Haiku summary
Elinor reasons, Marianne catches a cold And Lucy gets Bob. (thorold)