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    Sense & Sensibility
    Sense & Sensibility
    Sense & Sensibility
    Audiobook10 hours

    Sense & Sensibility

    Written by Joanna Trollope

    Narrated by Kate Reading

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Two sisters could hardly be more different . . .

    Elinor Dashwood, an architecture student, values patience and reliability. Her impulsive sister, Marianne, takes after their mother, Belle, and is fiery and creative, filling the house with her dramas and guitar playing while dreaming of going to art school.

    But when their father, Henry Dashwood, dies suddenly, his whole family finds itself forced out of Norland Park, their beloved home for twenty years. Without the comfort of status, they discover that their values are severely put to the test.

    Can Elinor remain stoic and restrained knowing that the man she really likes has already been ensnared by another girl? Will Marianne's faith in a one-and-only lifetime love be shaken by meeting the hottest boy in the county, John Willoughby? And in a world where social media and its opinions are the controlling forces at play, can love ever triumph over conventions and disapproval?

    With her wit and eye for social nuance, Joanna Trollope casts Jane Austen's Sense & Sensibility in a fresh new light to retell a wonderful coming-of-age story about young love and heartbreak, and how, when it comes to money especially, some things never change. . . .

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateOct 29, 2013
    ISBN9780062293183
    Sense & Sensibility
    Author

    Joanna Trollope

    Joanna Trollope is the author of many highly acclaimed and bestselling novels, including The Rector's Wife, Marrying the Mistress, Daughters in Law and City of Friends. She was appointed OBE in 1996, and a trustee of the National Literacy Trust in in 2012. She has chaired the Whitbread and Orange Awards, as well as being a judge of many other literature prizes; she has been part of two DCMS panels on public libraries and is patron of numerous charities, including Meningitis Now, and Chawton House Library. In 2014, she updated Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility as the opening novel in the Austen Project.

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    Reviews for Sense & Sensibility

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    • 5/5
      For some reason, this seems to be the Austen novel I come back to least often: I can't quite think why, because there's a lot of great stuff in it. There are some of Austen's funniest speeches and letters; there's a rather subversive look at Georgian courtship customs and the double standard; there's a romantic plot that gently mocks the conventions of romantic plots. Possibly there's just too much of everything? Certainly, there seem to be an awful lot of comic characters, and some of them don't get very much to do. Still, minor quibbles or not, it's a book I read with great pleasure every few years. Austen is, after all, Austen.
    • 5/5
      Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen’s first published novel, is the story of two sisters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood. Marianne is young and flirtatious and has very set ideas about what sort of person her true love, her knight in shining armour will be. Elinor, much more restrained, mature and sensible, has quite a different attitude to life and love. Both meet the man they believe is for them, but for neither does the course of true love run smooth. This charming novel has some very likeable characters, as well as a few to despise or disdain, and plenty of muddles, misunderstandings and wrong assumptions. Altogether a delight to read: easy to understand why this is a classic.
    • 4/5
      Sense and sensibility by Jane Austen was definelty a good read. OK.. till now I have read 4 books by Jane Austen Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion and Emma including this one. But compared to all the three this stands last in my favorites. Reason being, in the other 3 books I found both male and female protagonist quite strong and enchanting equally in their own way, but that was not the case with this book.In Sense and sensibility, I found there was more importance given to the female characters Elinor and Marianne Dashwood which made the male characters unappealing. But considering the fact that Austen had actually named this one as “Elinor and Marianne” before changing the title to "Sense and sensibility” the importance is quite justifiable too.

      My favorite character in this book was Elinor she was a very strong willed women. Neither she showed off her weakness to anyone nor her happiness and both are very difficult emotions to hide with indifference which she hid it pretty nicely without giving any sign to anyone around, which appealed to me the most. Where as her sister Marianne though she was sweet and caring towards her sister and outspoken too at times yet emotionally she seemed very hasty and weak. The difference between these two sisters is portrayed beautifully.

      Actually the best part of Austen’s books are the characters’ that she creates and their characterization. To begin with, there will be a lot of them and they all will be specifically very different from each other in every sense. Its almost like meeting all your annoying, artificial (fake) and genuine relatives at once in just one book! And the ending of course, which till the very end seems to be very sad and melancholic but in turn, turns to be a "happy one"!!!!! Which I love the most in Austens' novels!!
    • 5/5
      Sisters are usually important in Austen's books, although they're not always close, and are usually in the background. This book is unusual in having two contrasting heroines in Elinor and Marianne. Unlike say Elizabeth and Jane of Pride and Prejudice the two Dashwood sisters here both grow and learn from the other and are of equal importance to the story. The book is interesting in its themes of prudence versus passion for which the sisters make perfect exemplars and foils.If this sounds dry--well, almost no Austen novel is without a large leavening of humor--just look at the second chapter where by degrees, their sister-in-law convinces their half-brother not to help them so that finally she has him convinced their needs are so modest they "will be much more able to give you something." That's typical of Austen. The sharp characterizations that are so funny because they're timeless in their illustrations of human foibles and how being scrupulously polite and socially correct can cover pettiness, cruelty while being of itself at times comic and ridiculous.I'll admit Elinor is my favorite. The one in the family who is sensible in a family of sentimental romantics. Who doesn't have much room to assert her own feelings because someone has to be the grownup. But I feel for Marianne too. I don't, like some, feel she "settled." I think she simply grew through her experiences to appreciate qualities that would have been lost on her earlier. That's the way of the Austen novels and rather why I love them. Love isn't something that solves problems and brings on the happy ending but an experience that, even when you're disappointed, widens and deepens you so you become wiser and so more capable of happiness. At least if you blend a bit of a romantic sensibility with a modicum of sense.
    • 5/5
      I have always loved Sense and Sensibility best out of all of Jane Austen's novels, no doubt partly because it features the three Dashwood sisters (however invisible young Margaret may be), and I am one of three sisters myself. This tale of sensible Elinor and romantic Marianne, whose differing approaches to life and love are tested throughout the book, features the same sort of contest between desire and duty that gives Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre such power. It is a fitting tribute to Austen's powers as a writer, that although Elinor's "sense" is clearly meant to triumph, Marianne's "sensibility" is portrayed with such loving fondness.The story of a family of dependent women, whose fate is entirely in the hands of their male relatives, I have always found Sense and Sensibility to contain some of Austen's sharpest social criticism. The Dashwood women find themselves unwelcome guests in their own home when John Dashwood inherits the estate at Norland, and are only saved from the unpleasantness of the horrible Fanny by the kindness of Mrs. Dashwood's (male) cousin, Sir John Middleton. I have always found it fascinating that while Austen clearly endorses the more passive role that Elinor stakes out for herself, vis-a-vis romance, she simultaneously offers a very pointed critique of the enforced passivity of women, when it comes to economic activities and inheritance law.In the end though, for all its philosophical framework and subtle social commentary, Sense an Sensibility is most successful because Austen understands the complicated relations between women, particularly the bond between sisters.
    • 4/5
      The first time i read this book, i wasn't too crazy about it. But after reading it again a few times it has really grown on me.
    • 3/5
      I don't remember this too well, but my whole high school went to see the movie version when it came out because the English department had gotten to go to England and meet the director and cast the previous summer.
    • 4/5
      As the introduction helpfully points out - very few people put S & S at the top of their list of the best Austen novels! (from the 1902 edition available from Project Gutenberg). But this is still a great book. Her characters are so well imagined, finely drawn and believable. While they play out their personalities in a now strange environment, one can readily 'see' people with these same characteristics in ANY environment. Read June 2010 in e-book format.
    • 5/5
      I found myself disliking Marianne. She was a bit of a selfish brat.
    • 4/5
      The first of Austen's novels to be published, Sense and Sensibility is considered less mature than the four novels that followed -- Pride + Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, and Persuasion. The main characters, Elinor and Marianne, are drawn with exaggeration and remain something of a puzzle. Why exactly are they so superior to those that surround them? The minor characters are a fascination, the cad Willoughny, the awkward Col, Brandon, the pained Edward Ferrars. Even Lucy Steele is admirable for her manipulations and ability to win over others against all odds. And the satire on British customs is piercing if short of savage. Elinor's silent condescension after hearing the account of Brandon and Willoughby's duel is priceless.
    • 4/5
      I watched the film and fortunately, although it was disapointing,it didn't put me off reading the book. Good thing too as this book is fabulous.
    • 4/5
      Perhaps because I was very much impressed by the romance of Lizzie Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy in Pride and Prejudice, I read through the first part of Sense and Sensibility with a bit of a disappointment, as I felt this book didn't have as forceful emotion and love and wittiness as Pride and Prejudice. I felt Sense and Sensibility a lot more sedate. This book’s heroine Elinor is the master of calmness and restrain, more like Jane Bennet, Lizzie’s older sister in Pride and Prejudice. She has not the wittiness and spirit of Lizzie. Elinor’s beau Edward has the reserve of Mr Darcy, but not his dashing look or richness. However, a proof to Jane Austen's masterful writing, even before reading half of the book I was as hooked, as spellbound, as when I read Pride and Prejudice. Reading this book I was again drowned in Jane’s world; and it was very difficult to get out of it.This time it’s the love stories of the Miss Dashwoods, Elinor and Marianne. The heroes are Edwards Ferrars and Colonel Brandon. The black sheep this time is Willoughby (who resembles Wickham from Pride and Prejudice).Jane successfully gives a faithful and acute portray of the 18th century England, giving us a detailed look at the view of the society at that time about man and woman relationship, about family, about money and virtue. As in Pride and Prejudice (which was actually published two years after this book), in Sense and Sensibility it is very clear how dependent women are financially on their families or husbands. Not a situation to be envied on. It is very interesting as well to see how view has change over the time from then to now. The Dashwood sisters seem to forgive Willoughby’s conducts toward Marianne more easily after it was known that he left her for money. They hated him more when they thought that he was only pretending to fall in love with Marianne. I would’ve hated him no less if a guy is to leave me for financial reason! Maybe in those days people have resigned to the fact that fortune often obstructs love. Maybe this is the reason that Willoughby’s long defence of his attitude to Elinor is not depicted in the modern film adaptation (1995, starring Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant and Alan Rickman). It is interesting to see Jane’s descriptions of mothers. It doesn’t seem that she has a very good opinion on them. In Pride and Prejudice Mrs Bennet is borderline annoying in her stupidity. In this book Mrs Dashwood is kind and smart enough, but still too romantic to be wise. Perhaps Jane’s books including this one is always well liked because it appeals to our romantic sides, and also in her books the good will always be rewarded and the bad punished. Goodness of heart, wisdom and sense prevail.
    • 3/5
      The tale of two sisters - the elder (Elinor) is very sensible, rational, not prone to great tides of emotion, while the younger (Marianne) is much more melodramatic, given to those classic period-drama swoons and faintings - and their misadventures in love. Of course there is a complicated family situation, evil sisters-in-law, conniving rivals, fickle suitors... all the classic elements, as well as a happy ending. Austen has a very impressive skill for constructing romantic cliff-hangers.What impressed me (and I do not remember being impressed by this in Pride & Prejudice when I read it seven years ago) were the beautiful turns of phrase. "The shades of his mind" and "truth was less violently outraged than usual" were my favourites, along with "she did not think he deserved the compliment of rational opposition"! I also took great delight at the eventual fate of the main villain - really the only end for him, but unexpected when it came. Austen's lampooning of the insipid, rude, selfish bystanders among the characters is also distinctly enjoyable.I have my objections too. Elinor's sense apparently prevents her from ever suffering any outburts of emotion, well beyond the limits of the patience of anyone I know! Tempestuous Marianne suffers physically several times (a sprained ankle and a number of colds), while Elinor apparently has one of those miraculously healthy constitutions. Marianne has a relevation post-illness and repents of her former ways, and pre-revelation is just a bit too... dramatic. Like an opera diva. In addition, the speeches (particularly between the sisters) come across as overly lengthy, oratorial and therefore somewhat out of place. Maybe I am doing Austen an injustice and sisters really did speak like that once.By the way, I should mention I was reading a Folio Edition - beautiful red cloth spine and illustrations. And surprisingly, quite well designed for reading as well as just looking at!
    • 2/5
      I finally made it through Sense and Sensibility, but I must say it was quite a struggle. Jane Austen has a wonderful way with words, but I think it is safe to say that I grew to hate just about every character in the novel by the end. Elinor - the sense of the operation, was prim, proper dull and boring. Marianne - aka sensibility, was the extreme opposite of Elinor and I was praying she would be struck by a runaway horse and buggy within moments of being introduced to her, but sadly this was not to occur. The remaining women were primarily gossip junkies stalking the countryside for their next fix. The men of Sense and Sensibility not much better with the exception of Mr. Palmer. Palmer had the good sense to hide in the background and ignore the whole lot. I may give Austen another shot, but this reader needs a little time away.
    • 3/5
      Entertaining enough, more accessible than I necessarily expected. Hard to believe that people would actually have been as obsessed with money as Mr. John Dashwood was. But forgive Willoughby? Seriously? That was lost on me.
    • 4/5
      I am thankful that I didn't pick this, Sense and Sensibility, as my first Jane Austen book, otherwise I might have never known the love that I have for Pride and Prejudice. While Sense and Sensibility is a splendid story about love and class, it contains the most annoying characters of all time. Honestly, I didn't care for a single one other than Elinor.
    • 5/5
      I've actually already read this book, but I think it's my favorite Jane Austen, so I decided to read it again. Or at least it used to be my favorite. On rereading it, I think Emma or Persuasion might have the edge. But it's still very good. I'm not sure I understood all of Austen's semi-snide comments on human behaviour as a teenager.
    • 3/5
      This is my first reading of this novel which is one of the two most famous of Austen's novels, along with Pride and Prejudice (which I have not managed to finish, though I will try it again some time). This is the story of the lives and loves of the Dashwood sisters, Marian and Elinor and, while I enjoyed the first half, my interest tailed off in the middle, and only resumed slightly further towards the end. While I hugely admire Austen's clever use of language and her place as one of the giants of English literature is fully deserved, those of her novels I most enjoy are Northanger Abbey as a pastiche of the Gothic horror genre, Mansfield Park for its more unusual characters and scenarios and Persuasion for its setting in Bath and Lyme Regis, two towns I love.
    • 5/5
      I hadn't read much Austen at all since a much-abridged P&P when I was probably in late elementary school. After looking through a book on cover designs for Austen's works I decided I really ought to try her again, and settled on this one first. I enjoyed it immensely, and will certainly be back for me. Some excellent humor and set pieces alongside a very interesting meditation on English "rural elite" society and its strictures.
    • 5/5
      Today (May 2, 1965) I have just finished this book an I have much the same feeling of enjoyment I rememer so distinctly feeling in 1954--to my then surprise--after reading Pride and Prejudice. I found Sense and sensibility so deft, so well-done, so believeable, that my admiration is extreme. Of what moment? True, but nevertheless the craft of the author: that she can create such interest with such non-melodramatic effort seems fantastic. Elinor and Marianne Dashwood are sisters, and the book is merely an account of their progress to matrimony. Yet how absorbing it all seems. And the delicious humor! E.g.: "Many were the tears shed by them in their last adieux to a place so much beloved. 'Dear, dear Norland!" said Marianne, as she wandered alone before the house, on the last evening of their being there; 'when shall I cease to regret you? when learn to feel at home elsewhwere? O happy house! could you know what I suffer in now viewing you from this spot, from whence perhaps I may view you no more! and you, ye well-known trees! but you will continue the same. No leaf will decay because we are removed, nor any branch become motionless although we can observe you no longer! No; you will continue the same..."'
    • 5/5
      93/2020. Not as laugh aloud farcically amusing as P&P but the denouement does include several of the bitchiest lines Austen ever published, including this gem about Edward Ferrars: "[...] after experiencing the blessings of *one* imprudent engagement, contracted without his mother's consent, as he had already done for more than four years, nothing less could be expected of him in the failure of *that*, than the immediate contraction of another."Interestingly, I have far more sympathy for Marianne now than when I eye-rolled my way through reading S&S as a set book as a teenager at school. With the hindsight of age and experience I've also realised that Elinor isn't nearly as sensible as she thinks she is. However, I always knew that Colonel Brandon > Edward Ferrars. And why wasn't there a Mrs Jennings in my life when I was a teenager? I would've appreciated her far more than Elinor or Marianne did!Reading notes"probabilities and proofs" sound like a missing Blackadder the Third episode about maths. Why isn't there a maths themed romance novel with this title? I'd read it!Lol 1: "His temper might perhaps be a little soured by finding, like many others of his sex, that through some unaccountable bias in favour of beauty, he was the husband of a very silly woman, - but she knew that this kind of blunder was too common for any sensible man to be lastingly hurt by it."Lol 2: "Well, it is the oddest thing to me, that a man should use such a pretty girl so ill! But when there is plenty of money on one side, and next to none on the other, Lord bless you! they care no more about such things!"I still find Edward's wanton scissor-destruction both distressing and offensive. What a spoiled brat he is! (At least they weren't embroidery scissors.)
    • 3/5
      I feel like I should hate this book....but I don't. The beginning was extremely slow and monotonous but I was determined to get through it. I absolutely hated how it took so long to jus get to the point. Although I did like the story and the romance :)
    • 5/5
      hen I first heard about The Austen Project (modernization of Jane Austen's works being put out by Harper) I was a bit dubious. I mean, I love Austen's books - count me amount the hordes of fans who think they are just perfect. Now, mind you there are a few books out there, like Longbourn by Jo Baker, that play with some of the characters a bit, but I enjoyed them due to their authenticity and the respect that was evident for Austen's writing. But still, I was wary about Sense & Sensibility by Joanna Trollope.Read the rest of this review at The Lost Entwife on Nov. 14, 2013.
    • 5/5
      Every time I read a Jane Austen book I think I love it more and more. Sense & Sensibility keeps growing into my favorite. This time around I tried to really focus on the characters and I think that is why I fell so much more in love with her work.
    • 3/5
      It was good to find out what really happened in the story, compete with more complicated relationships, different points of view for storytelling, and Willoughby's attempt at vindication at the end. But overall, I liked Emma Thompson's movie better! And thought this was much less heart-felt than Persuasion, my favorite so far.
    • 4/5
      While she is a little wordy and nothing actually "happens" in the story, I found myself very much concerned about the characters. Marianne was my favorite, simply for the comedy of her overreactions. Elinor, always knowing how to act and what to say, no matter the situation or her the feelings it involved for her, is quite the role model. Too bad the little sister was a throw away character. The laughs I got at the expense of John & Fanny Dashwood and Mrs. Jennings and Mrs. Palmer say something for Austen. That she captures people like that in book form over 200 years ago and that those types of people continue to exist in real life means she really captured something of the true nature of people.
    • 5/5
      Jane Austen wrote two of my favorite books --- Sense & Sensibility and Pride & Prejudice. Each time I re-read them, (yes, I am a serial re-reader) I am overcome by the amount of emotion she can fit on a page. Sense & Sensibility ranks right up there for me with the best of the tearjerkers.Elinor and Marianne Dashwood are incredibly close sisters but could not be more different. Elinor is strong and reserved, Marianne is emotional and prone to outbursts on any opinion she might have. They are opposites in many ways with the exception of their love lives which can be described as nothing more than shambles. Elinor is in love with Edward and she feels, and her family is assured, that she will someday be his wife. Marianne falls for a man named Willoughby . He is dashing, daring, and falls amicably in love with Marianne soon after their first ill-fated meeting. Her happiness is not meant to last and, after leading her on, he leaves her with no warning. When an opportunity arises for the sisters to be in London, Marianne readily agrees much against the more strident arguments of Elinor to stay at the cottage with their mother. It is in London that Willoughby is sited and Marianne’s hopes rise only to be completely dashed when it is rumored that he is to marry someone very rich, something Marianne is not and has no hope to ever be. The death of their father and the miserly ways of their half brother, John, have left the Dashwood women rather less endowed.While in London, Marianne goes into a stupor on finding out about Willoughby and Elinor does her best to care for her. Unbeknownst to Marianne, Elinor is experiencing much the same torment --- she has heard from an acquaintance, Lucy Steele, that Edward is engaged. In fact, he is engaged to Lucy and Elinor is forced to listen to her drivel about their difficulties in not being able to express their love openly and to marry. Elinor is strong under the strain but somehow, while reading, you just wish she would sit and give in to her emotion but she doesn’t. That is the beauty in reading Austen, she pulls at the heartstrings but her characters can take it.An illness strands Elinor and Marianne on their way home but thanks to the help, and love, of a family friend, they are reunited with their mother and return home where each has time to recover from their love ordeals. After a few weeks, Elinor is surprised by Edward and an offer of marriage she had convinced herself was impossible and Marianne finds happiness in love in the place she least expected.The one thing I adore about the Austen novels I have read are the characters and this book does not fall short. The Dashwoods’ sister-in-law, Mrs. John Dashwood (Fanny) is probably one of the most conniving and annoying characters in the book. Her cheap nature, mean spiritedness, and jealously for the sisters is appropriately aggravating. In one scene, she complains about having to give away the good china when she of all people is forcing the Dashwoods from their beloved home now that her husband has inherited it upon of the death of his father. She plays a very small part but is unforgettable for me and one character I cannot stand to come across. She is so conniving she is wonderful and makes you want to hate all sister-in-laws even if you love you own. Why do I re-read this book over and over? Each time I find something new to love. I feel more and more each time for Marianne and the deep depression she falls into over losing Willoughby and what she thought, and was led to believe, would happen between them. Willoughby becomes more and more of a rascal, to use a proper Austen term, and so viciously cruel that Marianne’s torment becomes even greater. And dear Elinor, the strong sister who seems capable of running the world if given the chance with her calm and cool demeanor, to suffer so in silence almost to the end is just heart wrenching. When the happy ending arrives you almost want to celebrate and cry along with the characters.
    • 4/5
      Generally, I know that when I pick up a Jane Austen book the end is going to include a wedding or two. However, it's still worth reading about the heroines and how they get there. The main characters were sisters, well rounded characters that reminded me of some girls I know.
    • 4/5
      Best for: Anyone interested in getting swept up in a bit of period drama.In a nutshell: Two sisters deal with the loss of their father and the change in lifestyle that follows, while trying to sort out their love lives.Worth quoting:“I am afraid that the pleasantness of an employment does not always evince its propriety.”Why I chose it: The cover, honestly. This lovely cloth cover drew my attention in a bookshop a few weeks ago, and I figured why not finally pick it up.Review:The book was originally published over 200 years ago, but just the same … SPOILERS!I claim on Good Reads to have read Pride and Prejudice, but I don’t think I have (odd, I know, and I’ll be correcting that). The cover of the film version of Sense and Sensibility has flashed on Netflix as I’ve skimmed through options over the years, but I’ve never watched it (until now - it’s playing as I write this review*). I share that only to say that because of that, I had Emma Thompson in my mind as I read Elinor, and Kate Winslet as I read Marianne. But I didn’t know the rest of the cast, so luckily my imagination was able to fill in the rest of the characters.It took me a little bit to get into this; I don’t read fiction often, and I read fiction from the 19th century even less often, so the writing took me some time to adjust to. That said, by about fifty pages in, I was engrossed. Unfortunately, because I wasn’t entirely understanding what I was reading (beyond picking up that Franny Dashwood is a conniving snot and her husband is a wimp), the whole Edward-Elinor pairing completely slipped my mind. When he was mentioned again much later on (as his engagement is revealed by Lucy), I was confused why Elinor would even care. So that’s a big whoops on my part.I did enjoy that characters were developed and shown to be a bit more complex (not always, although often) than they originally seemed. That said … I don’t understand why anyone’s opinion should be moved by Willoughby’s big confession to Elinor when he thinks Marianne is dying. Like, I guess the fact that his wife dictated the shitty letter matters, but I didn’t see anything in what he said that changed anything. Did I just miss something? Or was that whole reveal meant to just endear us even more to Elinor and her willingness to find the good in people? It just seemed unnecessary to me.Overall, I’m glad I read it. Up next, per a friend’s suggestion, is Persuasion; after that I’ll go with Mansfield Park, and eventually work my way around to Pride and Prejudice.*The casting in this film is BRILLIANT. I actually squealed when I saw Gemma Jones was Elinor and Marianne’s mother. AND ALAN RICKMAN JUST SHOWED UP!
    • 5/5
      Jane Austen can make me gasp out loud. As much as I read I don't gasp out loud very often while reading, but Jane Austen can make me do it with just a single word.Willoughby.With Jane Austen it's not what is said but what is not said that matters. Hers is the art of reference, of the knowing glance. The surface is overwhelmed by what is going on beneath. The most well respected writer of romance in English Austen never once depicted a single kiss, she didn't have to. Her art has nothing to do with kissing; her art is about getting the kiss. No kiss could ever hope to live up to the expectation. The thrill comes not from the actual kiss, but from finally knowing there's going to be one.Can you tell I'm a bit of a Janeite?Jane Austin's first novel Sense and Sensibility (1811) is the story of two sisters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, young women who have lost their income. After the death of their father they are forced to leave their family estate and settle in a small cottage owned by a friendly relation. There they meet Mrs. Jennings, a widow of some fortune, who takes them under her wing and makes finding them suitable husbands her special project. Each sister falls in love with a man who is already pledged to another. Elinor falls for a genuinely good man who is not at all romantic while Marianne falls for a questionable man who is very romantic. Sense and Sensibility. This is a Jane Austen novel so there is little question about how it will all end, but it's the journey that matters, not the destination. The journey is wonderful.It's been a few years since I read a Jane Austen novel so I'd forgotten how funny she is. In the opening chapters Elinor and Marianne's half brother has a long discussion with his wife about what to do for the pair. How much of an income should he give them. His wife answers each of his generous suggestions with a detailed explanation of why it's too much, how it would only hurt them to have such a high income or such a quality home eventually convincing him to leave them nothing but the small income their mother can provide. Mrs. Jennings, the well-meaning but meddlesome widow, is certainly a stock character, but she is so funny that this reader didn't care. I just wanted more of her. 19th century novels are big enough that they can accomodate a character or two whose sole purpose is to provide laughter. The first of the four novels published in her lifetime, Sense and Sensibility is often listed as lesser Austen. This may be true, but that's a bit like comparing a 24 carat diamond with a 28 carat one, isn't it. It's still a diamond.