Sense and Sensibility

Sense and Sensibility is a novel by Jane Austen published in 1811, the first of Austen's novels to be published. She published it anonymously, as "By a Lady".

The novel follows the three Dashwood sisters as they must move with their widowed mother from the estate on which they grew up, Norland Park.

Because Norland is passed down to John, the product of Mr. Dashwood's first marriage, and his young son, the four Dashwood women need to look for a new home.

They have the opportunity to rent a modest home, Barton Cottage, on the property of a distant relative, Sir John Middleton.

There the two eldest sisters take opposite paths in love. Elinor, who keeps her feelings to herself, has grown attached to Edward Ferrars, who turns out to be secretly engaged to another woman. Marianne, who hides nothing, falls for the charming John Willoughby and is publicly abandoned by him, while the steady Colonel Brandon waits.

Behind the romance is a hard look at money: what the Dashwood women lose is not only a house but an income, and every courtship in the novel is weighed against property. The contrast between Elinor's restraint and Marianne's romantic sensibility is what gives the book its title.

It has been adapted for film and television numerous times, with the best-known adaptation being Ang Lee's 1995 version.