Sense and Sensibility (novel)

Sense and Sensibility, published in 1811, was the first of Jane Austen's novels to be printed. She published it anonymously, with her brother Henry Austen, helping her find a publisher.

plot

Like her later novel, Pride and Prejudice, her heroines' father's estate is entailed on a male relative. After the passing of their father, the three young Dashwood sisters, and their mother, have to leave the grand estate, where they had been growing up. When their half-brother, the heir they barely know, does not honor his father's deathbed plea to take care of his half-sisters, they have to search for a new place to live.

Distant relatives offer them a much smaller house, a "cottage", Barton Cottage, in rural Exeter. There the two older sisters, Elinor, the practical, level-headed sister, and 16-year-old Marianne, the dreamy, impetuous sister, are in love in relationships that seem hopeless. Both young women experience deep unhappiness, and both young women do, eventually, marry a man who loves them, and who they love back.

Elinor has developed deep feelings for her sister-in-law's brother Edward Ferrars, which she keeps to herself, first, because he hasn't given her any sign he sees her as anything more than a friend, and then later, after Lucy Steele tells her that she and Edward have been secretly engaged, for years. Meanwhile Marianne has attracted the attention of two men, handsome and charming John Willoughby, who seems to be the kind of romantic partner she always dreamed of, and Colonel Brandon, a slightly older man she sees as boring.

Willoughby turns out to be a disappointment. Like many young men of gentry, he is expected to inherit wealth and property, but the relatives he depends on expect him to marry a young woman with wealth of her own. He suddenly disappears, and when Marianne next sees him he is with a wealthy fiancee. She is confused, she romantically thought they had a love that could conquer all obstacles. Pining away, watching his neighboring home from a distant hilltop, Marianne is caught in a downpour, and becomes deathly ill. Colonel Brandon, who has loved her, all along, is a tower of strength, and, as she recovers, and wises up, she falls for him, instead.

Elinor learns that the reason why the marriage promise made by Edward Ferrars to Lucy Steele has to be kept secret is that his elder sister and mother would not approve of her. Sure enough, her confession of her to Mrs John Dashwood triggers their mother to disinherit him. the Dashwoods lose contact with him, and then their servant tells them Lucy Steele greeted him and informed him she was now Lucy Ferrars. When Edward Ferrars drops by, to apologize for disappearing, they politely ask after Mrs Ferrars. There is a poignant moment of confusion, when he thinks they are asking about his mother, for some reason. It turns out that Lucy was faithless, and, after Edward was disinherited, had pursued and married his younger brother. So, he is free to state that he loves Elinor. But they can't marry, as he has no money, until Elinor's sister's wealthy fiance offers him a position as a clergyman, on his estate.