Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

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Rating: 3 out of 5.

Title: Sense and Sensibility
Author: Jane Austen
Year of Publication: 1811
Series: NA
Series #: NA
Goodreads Rating (Avg.): 4.08
Goodreads Rating (Mine): 3

Cover Art for Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

Synopsis: The tale of two sisters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, as they navigate coming-of-age, love, hope and society.

‘It is a truth universally acknowledged…’ that Ms. Austen is a masterful writer, especially when it comes to slipping dry humour into her books.

He was not an ill-disposed young man, unless to be rather cold hearted and rather selfish is to be ill-disposed.

I strongly sympathize with Elinor (19), as she manages the emotions of her mother and younger sister Marianne (16), while essentially having to repress any and all feelings of her own, because God forbid she have problems of her own to deal with.

Sense and Sensibility is a good look into the social mores of a time long since dead… or at least, dead if you live in many Western countries. The whole obsession with a woman’s reputation and stigmatisation of concepts like premarital sex and single motherhood is still alive and well in my own community as well as many others in India and other South Asian and Middle Eastern countries.

And as such, I have little or no good nature to spare for the various characters in Sense and Sensibility who act as though hooking up with random handsome and unscrupulous young men is the worst crime one can come up with. The women who have the bad judgment to let their virtue be so compromised are explicitly punished in the book with poverty, social ostracisation, rapidly degrading health and eventual death under ignominious circumstances. Austen is clear on her stance:

And it is with this harsh fate that Marianne Dashwood constantly flirts, much to the dismay of her sister. Marianne is thoughtless and dramatic and impulsive and romantic, and she believes there is no harm in spending time with her lover in unchaperoned situations.

And why not? For the love of Marianne’s life, the dashing John Willoughby, can do no wrong. She trusts him with all the naïveté of a passionate 17-year-old. Now, Ms. Austen might have been willing to overlook the extremely flawed qualities of being passionate and young. But to her, Marianne commits the absolutely unforgivable crime of not wanting to marry a 35-year-old with whom she has nothing in common, and who walks and talks like an old geezer (for some reason).

And for this crime must Marianne be punished over the course of hundreds of pages, as Willoughby betrays her trust and dumps her for a much richer girl. And in the end, when Marianne has been suitably humbled by heartbreak and illness, she pridelessly agrees to marry the 35-year-old (but extremely rich) Colonel Brandon (who may or may not still be carrying a torch for his first love).

And what of Elinor? I’ll be honest – I was really rooting for Elinor and Col. Brandon to get together. ‘Why?’ you ask? Well, perhaps because they actually are on the same wavelength, and have things to talk about together. And Elinor really deserved to live a rich, comfortable life after all the headaches she endured thanks to her thoughtless mother and sister.

But Elinor gets a real happy ending – her fuckboi boyfriend, who had previously dumped her because he was secretly engaged to someone else altogether. As luck would have it, the fuckboi himself was in turn dumped by his fiancee (who married his brother). And he was then free to confess his true feelings towards Elinor, unhindered by the dictates of chivalry (and spinelessness.)

And so, Ms. Austen seems to be saying, if you are too prideful to marry a man twice your age, then marry him you shall. And if you’re humble and long-suffering, then you may live out your life with the man you love, poor as church mice, in a cottage at the foot of your formerly-prideful-sister’s manor.

I’m never going to understand these social customs, am I?

As a romance, Sense and Sensibility is a satisfying one (my gripes about Col. Too-Old-To-Marry-A-Teenager notwithstanding.) A married and miserable Willoughby comes back to declare his love for Marianne when he hears about her illness. Elinor’s boyfriend (and brother-in-law), Edward Ferrars also declares his love for her, and they are happily married by the end of the book.

Both sisters are gaslit by the society around them about their romantic attachments. They are forced to accept, over and over again that there was no substance or foundation for the way they felt about these seemingly uninterested men. They are made to look like fools for trusting the words of these men, and for believing in their own intuitions. And by the end of the book, both sisters are vindicated in their emotions, and provided with happy endings to boot.

Sense and Sensibility is a difficult book to read for two reasons: (1) the difference in writing style between then and now; and (2) the obscure nature of Austen’s wit, marked by her characteristic dry sarcasm. But it’s a journey worth taking, filled with twists and turns. And Austen continues to prove herself a keen observer of human nature (even if her judgments and morals tend toward the uglier side.) ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Next: Princess Diaries #2 – Princess in the Spotlight