When I was making up my current Classics Club list, I realized I hadn’t reread any Austen for a while. So, I picked Sense and Sensibility.
When Mr. Dashwood was dying, he made his son John promise to take care of his second wife and daughters, since he was unable to leave them anything due to an entail. John makes this promise with good intentions and tells his wife he will give each of them £1000, but she talks him out of each of his suggestions until he gives them nothing.
On a very small budget, then, Mrs. Dashwood must find a new home for herself and her three daughters, Elinor, Marianne, and Margaret. Just as things are getting unbearable at the shared home, a relative of Mrs. Dashwood, Sir John Middleton, offers the women a cottage in Devonshire at a low rate.
Elinor regrets leaving her home all the more because she has developed what she believes is a shared attachment with her brother-in-law, Edward Ferrars. But Mrs. John Dashwood wants her brother as far away from Elinor as possible. Both she and her mother plan for him to marry well.
Relocated to their new home, the Dashwoods find their neighbors, the Middletons, and Mrs. Jennings, Mrs. Middleton’s mother, to be almost overly friendly.
One day Marianne and Margaret are caught out in a rainstorm and Marianne sprains her ankle skidding down a grassy hill. A gentleman rescues her, and he, Mr. Willoughby, becomes a frequent visitor. It is clear he is attracted to Marianne, and she, having fully adopted the ideals of Romanticism, shows plainly that she’s in love with him. Meanwhile, Elinor wonders why she isn’t hearing from Edward.
This novel is about two sisters who deal with unhappy love affairs in opposite ways and the result. It has vividly believable characters, some funny, and in its own way constitutes a sharp social satire. This novel is one of my favorites by Austen.
What? Me Read? 
This is one of the Austen novels I liked least, but I’ve only read it once – maybe I’ll appreciate it more when I re-read it. Persuasion is my favourite.
I like Persuasion, too. I keep changing my mind about which I like best.
Much though I love Pride and Prejudice, I always think this is her best novel. I think the eventual marriages are less glittery and more realistic. These days it also makes me laugh that the Middletons share a name with our future Queen Kate – I can’t help imagining she’s descended from them… 😉
Hah!
I love Austen, but not this book. Found it rather uninteresting. Least favourite together with Mansfield Park. Love Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion and Nothanger Abbey. It is really interesting that the preferences among Austen fans are so divided.
I have to say that I like everything Austen wrote because she is so witty, although I prefer some to others.