This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.
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.
Disclaimer: Very novice reviewer trying to get better at explaining my thoughts on books.
Overall
To me, the book feels like a cleaned up and classy version of a sordid romance. That sounds contradictory, it probably is, but that is my impression.
Writing was very dialogue heavy. Not necessarily a bad thing. I've enjoyed a number of novels that do the same, but it could have used a little bit of extra text on who was speaking to help keep things straight during some of the longer conversations. Typically, they would just be back and forth by paragraph in those situations, so it wasn't too bad.
There are 3 John characters: John Dashwood, John Middleton, and John Willoughby. They are usually called Mr. Dashwood, Sir John, and Mr. Willoughby. I still find it funny.
Recommendation
It's a book. It's fine. Elinor was quite enjoyable so that the book didn't feel like a slog, but ultimately I don't who I would recommend this to. Clearly I am missing something. Jane Austin is popular and does have a following, that means something in the book appeals to a lot of people.
This is a very good example, to me at least, of how much of what you get out of a story depends on what you bring to it.
Brief Summary
Elinor Dashwood falls in love with Edward Ferrars. Marianne Dashwood falls in love with John Willoughby.
The story just follows the twists and turns of those relationships and the heartbreak associated with disappointment.
It also contrasts Elinor's sense in falling for a good man against Marianne's "sensibility" getting duped by a scummy con man. Sensibility apparently meant something along the lines are following sensations back when Jane Austin was writing. It does not refer to being sensible or having sense.
Elinor falls for Edward when her family is staying with her brother's family at Norland. After moving to Barton she doesn't see him for a while. When he returns, his behavior is off and she later learns from a guest of her hosts that Edward is engaged to Lucy Steele and has been for 4 years. She carries on with great stoicism for the rest of the book until Lucy dumps Edward after he gets disowned by his family.
Marianne falls for the dashing and handsome Willoughby. They are both passionate about all the same things and he dotes on her greatly. One day he leaves abruptly and disappears. When encountered much later, he snubs her and reveals his engagement to some rich heiress. Marianne proceeds to fall apart. After falling greatly ill, Willoughby reveals his excuses to Elinor, but he does end up leaving forever. Marianne is later wooed by Colonel Brandon who is a friend of the family and the patron of Edward.
Thoughts
It's a romance with a clean narrative. A little bit of naughtiness obliquely referenced.
The men are very blind and dumb. At least about romance, not necessarily generally, but since the book is about romance that is all that we really see. I can see how men would appear so to a women. Men are very clueless when it comes to noticing women's interest. However, men do tend to be perceptive of other men's interest.
Characters
Elinor is great. Love her character. She absolutely carried this novel hard. Without her, I wouldn't be ambivalent to Sense and Sensibility, I would hate it. Though, given how much of the novel focuses on Elinor, she pretty much is the novel. This is exactly what I want in a woman. When her emotions finally break through on discovering the marriage of Mr. Ferrars and then later that it was Robert Ferrars not Edward was a very nice counter balance to her normal control, sense, and stoicism.
Marianne is awful. I don't know how to describe it, I just cannot stand her.
Willoughby is obviously no good. Almost right from the get-go, I could tell he was acting without honorable intentions. At the end, his excuse chapter does make me feel a little bad for him. His problems are still all of his own making, so I don't feel that bad. He has a complete lack of constancy. I agree with Elinor's assessment that would always pine over that which he didn't have.
Edward is just not in the book enough. He is very duty bound, which is nice. Ultimately, we just don't get him in the story much at all. He exists more as a motive for Lucy to be mean to Elinor. The fact that he just would not see Lucy's duplicitous side was a nice touch. very realistic.
Mrs. Jennings moves, at least in the character's opinions, from a busy-body early in the novel to a good friend as she tries her best to help Elinor and Marianne with their heartbreak.
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. ( )
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.
.
▾Library descriptions
No library descriptions found.
▾LibraryThing members' description
Book description
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)
Overall
To me, the book feels like a cleaned up and classy version of a sordid romance. That sounds contradictory, it probably is, but that is my impression.
Writing was very dialogue heavy. Not necessarily a bad thing. I've enjoyed a number of novels that do the same, but it could have used a little bit of extra text on who was speaking to help keep things straight during some of the longer conversations. Typically, they would just be back and forth by paragraph in those situations, so it wasn't too bad.
There are 3 John characters: John Dashwood, John Middleton, and John Willoughby. They are usually called Mr. Dashwood, Sir John, and Mr. Willoughby. I still find it funny.
Recommendation
It's a book. It's fine. Elinor was quite enjoyable so that the book didn't feel like a slog, but ultimately I don't who I would recommend this to. Clearly I am missing something. Jane Austin is popular and does have a following, that means something in the book appeals to a lot of people.
This is a very good example, to me at least, of how much of what you get out of a story depends on what you bring to it.
Brief Summary
Elinor Dashwood falls in love with Edward Ferrars. Marianne Dashwood falls in love with John Willoughby.
The story just follows the twists and turns of those relationships and the heartbreak associated with disappointment.
It also contrasts Elinor's sense in falling for a good man against Marianne's "sensibility" getting duped by a scummy con man. Sensibility apparently meant something along the lines are following sensations back when Jane Austin was writing. It does not refer to being sensible or having sense.
Elinor falls for Edward when her family is staying with her brother's family at Norland. After moving to Barton she doesn't see him for a while. When he returns, his behavior is off and she later learns from a guest of her hosts that Edward is engaged to Lucy Steele and has been for 4 years. She carries on with great stoicism for the rest of the book until Lucy dumps Edward after he gets disowned by his family.
Marianne falls for the dashing and handsome Willoughby. They are both passionate about all the same things and he dotes on her greatly. One day he leaves abruptly and disappears. When encountered much later, he snubs her and reveals his engagement to some rich heiress. Marianne proceeds to fall apart. After falling greatly ill, Willoughby reveals his excuses to Elinor, but he does end up leaving forever. Marianne is later wooed by Colonel Brandon who is a friend of the family and the patron of Edward.
Thoughts
It's a romance with a clean narrative. A little bit of naughtiness obliquely referenced.
The men are very blind and dumb. At least about romance, not necessarily generally, but since the book is about romance that is all that we really see. I can see how men would appear so to a women. Men are very clueless when it comes to noticing women's interest. However, men do tend to be perceptive of other men's interest.
Characters
Elinor is great. Love her character. She absolutely carried this novel hard. Without her, I wouldn't be ambivalent to Sense and Sensibility, I would hate it. Though, given how much of the novel focuses on Elinor, she pretty much is the novel. This is exactly what I want in a woman. When her emotions finally break through on discovering the marriage of Mr. Ferrars and then later that it was Robert Ferrars not Edward was a very nice counter balance to her normal control, sense, and stoicism.
Marianne is awful. I don't know how to describe it, I just cannot stand her.
Willoughby is obviously no good. Almost right from the get-go, I could tell he was acting without honorable intentions. At the end, his excuse chapter does make me feel a little bad for him. His problems are still all of his own making, so I don't feel that bad. He has a complete lack of constancy. I agree with Elinor's assessment that would always pine over that which he didn't have.
Edward is just not in the book enough. He is very duty bound, which is nice. Ultimately, we just don't get him in the story much at all. He exists more as a motive for Lucy to be mean to Elinor. The fact that he just would not see Lucy's duplicitous side was a nice touch. very realistic.
Mrs. Jennings moves, at least in the character's opinions, from a busy-body early in the novel to a good friend as she tries her best to help Elinor and Marianne with their heartbreak.