This one is truly a classic; if you haven’t read it, you are in for a treat, as it is one of the best debut novels ever written. (I’d put it up there with Jane Eyre and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.) It’s a coming of age tale of two sisters, Elinor (she of good sense) and Marianne Dashwood (she of sensibility—which, at the time, meant a tendency towards romanticism, impetuosity, impulsiveness, and excessive emotion). They’re fully rounded characters, though, not types, each complex, kind, and rather vulnerable, as women are in a patriarchal society that provides them limited means and limited options.

Their adventures in life and love comprise the plot, complete with a selfish half brother, a cruel sister in law, a scheming opportunist, a philandering cad, some troublemaking gossips, and, at last, some honorable men.

***

I highly recommend the new Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition, because it is rather a lovely book, with a beautiful cover illustration by Dadu Shin and deckle edges, and, more importantly, because it contains an introduction, glossary, and various essays by Devoney Looser. This material helps contextualize the cultural and intellectual milieu of the novel, covering such topics as inheritance, letter writing, and seduction. Ms. Looser is a Professor of English at Arizona State University and has written extensively, most recently in The Making of Jane Austen, of Jane Austen’s place in the larger culture, in a style that is both scholarly and accessible for the general reader. Plus she has good taste (or at least taste I share), with a great enthusiasm for the 1995 film of Sense and Sensibility, directed by Ang Lee, with Emma Thompson (who also wrote the screenplay) as Elinor and Kate Winslet as Marianne (also starring Hugh Grant and Alan Rickman). We also both immensely enjoyed Kate Hamill’s original, energetic, almost riotous theatrical adaption, performed by Bedlam theater company in 2016, in which Ms. Hamill played Marianne.

***

But enough with adaptations, excellent as they may be. Read the novel! Here you will find great wisdom, a keen understanding of human nature, wry and profound observations, life lessons, good humor, graceful prose, and a satisfying ending.

***

HOW TO PURCHASE: Amazon

NOVEL: Sense and Sensibility

AUTHOR: Jane Austen

YEAR OF PUBLICATION: 1811

LEAD-IN IMAGE

Book cover, Sense and Sensibility, published by Penguin Classics