Sense and Sensibility follows the fortunes of sensible Elinor and her volatile younger sister, Marianne, as each searches for a spousea quest made urgent by the familys financial embarrassment. While Elinor pursues the heart of clergyman, Edward Ferrars, Marianne impulsively falls in love with a glamorous but unscrupulous adventurer, Willoughby. Elinor sees trouble brewing but the enraptured Marianne does not. The sisters question each others choices in love.
More than in her other novels, Austen here includes portraits of ill-matched couples, such as the avaricious Fanny Dashwood and her hen-pecked husband John; and the daffy Charlotte Palmer and her gloomy and contemptuous spouse. Perhaps Austen here suggests that, while marriage seems inevitable for most people, conjugal happiness can be much harder to find.
Sense and Sensibility (written by a lady) was first published in 1811. It is a complete re-writing of Austens earlier epistolary novel, Elinor and Marianne.
