Sense and Sensibility. Jane Austen.

Sense and Sensibility
Jane Austen
Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. 1811.

Why read it? Novel. Two sisters with dramatically different personalities. Elinor is cool in crisis, objective, keeps emotion in check, sees and accepts the world as it is. Marianne is emotional, uncontrolled, blows apart in crisis. The two are jilted. How do they handle this disappointing turn in their lives?

Some sample ideas from the novel: “Elinor 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.” “Marianne was sensible and clever; but eager in everything; her sorrows, her joys could have no moderation….” Marianne on Edward’s reading: “…how spiritless, how tame was Edward’s manner in reading to us last night; to hear those beautiful lines which have frequently almost driven me wild, pronounced with such impenetrable calmness, such dreadful indifference…. If he is not be animated by Cowper….”

“Elinor knew that what Marianne and her mother conjectured one moment, they believed the next—that with them, to wish was to hope, and to hope was to expect.” “Sir John was loud in his admiration at the end of every song and as loud in his conversation with the others while every song lasted.” Marianne on thirty-five-year-old Col. Brandon: “Colonel Brandon is certainly younger than Mrs. Jennings, but he is old enough to be my father, and if he were ever animated enough to be in love, must have long outlived every sensation of the kind. Did you not hear him complain of the rheumatism? And is not that the commonest infirmity of declining life?” [Ray’s note: In the end Marianne marries Col. Brandon. Why?] Marianne on Col. Brandon: “But he [Col. Brandon] talked of flannel waistcoats and with me a flannel waistcoat is invariably connected with aches, cramps, rheumatisms and every species of ailment that can afflict the old and the feeble.”

Marianne on language: “I abhor every common-place phrase by which wit is intended; and ‘setting one’s cap at a man,’ or ‘making a conquest' are the most odious of all. …and if their construction ever be deemed clever, time has long ago destroyed all its ingenuity.” Willoughby acquiesced in all Marianne’s decisions, caught all her enthusiasms; and long before his visit concluded, they conversed with the familiarity of long-established acquaintance…same books, the same passages were idolized by each—or if any difference appeared, any objection arose, it lasted no longer than till the force of her arguments and the brightness of her eyes could be displayed.” [RayS. Marianne falls for Willoughby and he jilts her.] Willoughby on Col. Brandon: “Brandon is just the kind of man whom everybody speaks well of and nobody cares about; whom all are delighted to see and nobody remembers to talk to.” “It was settled that there should be a dance in the evening, and that everybody should be extremely merry all day long.”

Quote: “On Edward’s side, more particularly, there was a deficiency of all that a lover ought to look and say on such an occasion…was confused, seemed scarcely sensible of pleasure in seeing them, looked neither rapturous nor gay, said little but what was forced from him by questions and distinguished Elinor by no mark of affection….” [RayS: Edward jilts Elinor because of a previous engagement, but they reunite and marry. Why?]

Quote: “Marianne Dashwood was born to an extraordinary fate: she was born to discover the falsehood of her own opinions, and to counteract, by her conduct, her most favorite maxims.”