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Sense and Sensibility

Jane Austen

Start date: June 1, 2024

Finish date: June 29, 2024

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Why we're reading this: Revisit the Shelf Group Read, June 2024

Old School Classic Group Read, February 2014
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Old School Classic Group Read, February 2014

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What Members Thought

Jul 23, 2009 Brenda rated it it was amazing

Shelves: classics, jane-austen-readathon-2025-250-yr-b

This is a reread, but I still love it. Its one of my most favorite of Austen's novels. ...more

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Jun 20, 2015 Patrick rated it liked it · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I thought this book was good read though it move kind of slow b/c of the old English they used so I give this book 3 stars

Elinor's beau seems to be a girl who is a country boy named Edward who is wealthy but wants a simple uncomplicated life. While her mother agrees with that plan, Marianne has her doubts about him. Elinor has gotten to know him and she likes the good sense and general disposition that she has towards him. But b/c he is reserved towards her, she worries that his interest in him I thought this book was good read though it move kind of slow b/c of the old English they used so I give this book 3 stars

Elinor's beau seems to be a girl who is a country boy named Edward who is wealthy but wants a simple uncomplicated life. While her mother agrees with that plan, Marianne has her doubts about him. Elinor has gotten to know him and she likes the good sense and general disposition that she has towards him. But b/c he is reserved towards her, she worries that his interest in him is only friendly. Marianne complains that her sister only shows her evenness and never shows her emotion which worries her. Marianne complains that Colonel Brandon is an old man with illnesses and the possibility of marrying him would be an exchange of a young nurse to his wealth.

Marianne is a woman who wears her heart on her sleeves and thinks the only man worth pursuing is someone who is similarly passionate as she is. Willoughby is young lad who has a preppy upbringing and looks presentable no one knows the quality of his being. Willoughby and Marianne hit it off b/c their conversation flowed and they liked the same music and authors. Even though Willoughby is charged with speaking his mind without regard to propriety, it is taken to the extreme when they idly gossip about people they do not like. Marianne likes him b/c she can talk to him about anything that interest him. Whereas Elinor wanted a sense of propriety in everything her and Marianne do, she thinks that propriety has no business in matters of the heart especially if you have a lot in common with the person. While Marianne has a childhood enthusiasm, Elinor wishes her sister has a sense of propriety. Marianne rightly believes a similar personality predisposes a man to woman rather than the number of years a person knows him. B/c she rightly states there are people that one may know for years without truly knowing them, while others that you may know for a short period of time but it seems you have known them a lifetime. Whereas Elinor is concerned about the appropriateness of having her sister visiting Willoughby's home, Marianne thought it was perfectly appropriate as long as nothing I seemingly happens.

While Willoughby hastily broke off their engagement, Marianne felt saddened and severely depressed by his withdrawal from her. Elinor suspects Willoughby as being duplicitous in his intentions towards her sister. Elinor is dismayed that Edward does not display the same ardor with which he once felt towards her. While Marianne has the wondrous enthusiasm of youth and so reacts to everything around her, Edward only wants to outwardly display things he feels. Being a son of privilege, Edward has no direction in life b/c he does not need to work to survive and thus has no profession and thus no direction in his life.

inor shockingly finds that her Edward was actually engaged to another woman. She finds out that he was pining for her when he visited them and the hair she thought was here was actually the hair of his betrothed. The question now becomes is she engaged to the woman because of expectation to be with someone or does he actually love Elinor but is too chicken to break of his engagement to his betrothed. Elinor asks the same question of Edward. Could he not see that despite Lucy's beauty, they should not be together b/c whereas she was uneducated, he was extremely educated. Elinor decided to pretend she was more okay than she was b/c she wanted to show a brave front to her issues. Elinor believes that while Lucy and Edwards engagement was perhaps born out of love originally, they would have grown apart so that they no longer have anything in common and so they need to break off their engagement. After talking to Lucy, Elinor believes that Edward no longer loves and Lucy was just using him for his money and no longer loved him, too. Whereas Elinor wished to distance herself from Edward, Marianne wanted nothing more than to be close to her beloved Willoughby.

While Colonel Brandon obsesses over Marianne going so far as to ask about her engagement to Willoughby, Marianne obsesses on her engagement to the now elusive, Willoughby. When they finally met, Willoughby acted as though he did not know Marianne in a more intimate setting so she being so succumbed by desire for him became extremely depressed. It turns out that Willoughby was already engaged to someone else while he flirted with Marianne's feelings so he was playing with her. What is worse, he now contends that all she felt for him or everything she thought she perceived in him were all in her head. Nothing that happened with them was considered real in his eyes. Instead, he decided to marry a rich girl who was not attractive but would considerably improve his fortune. In order to distract Marianne from the blow of Willoughby's infidelity to her interests, they invited Colonel Brandon to a party with Marianne present. But because he cared about her interest, he could not be happy when he heard that Willoughby broke her heart even though it left an opening for him to enter. Apparently, Willoughby impregnated Colonel Brandon's adopted daughter before moving onto trying to seduce Marianne. With this knowledge, Marianne felt saddened more of the loss of character of Willoughby than the fact she lost his heart. She could not believe she misjudged his character so badly.

Their brother schemed on having the wealthy Colonel Brandon mate with Elinor in order for them to have a more favorable social match. B/c of a difficult mother-in-law, Elinor is now glad that Edward broke off their engagement. Elinor was placed in an awkward situation to play host to Lucy, Edward and his mother b/c Lucy requested it from Elinor. Even though Edward wanted to talk to Elinor, Lucy prevented their speaking to each other by being present on the table. While Elinor submitted to society's decorum over her feelings, Marianne told things as she saw it. While Elinor wanted to be agreeable and thus liked by her society, Marianne is more self-absorbed and wants things that she wants. Meanwhile, Edward's mother was pissed that he was engaged to get married to a pauper like, Lucy. Elinor finally tells Marianne that Edward was to marry Lucy and not her. Elinor accepts this fact with quiet stoicism. Since Edward was engaged to marry Lucy, his mother disowned him from his inheritance. By getting married to Lucy despite the threat of being disowned, he proved his love for her. Lucy was willing to wait until he became a minister before marrying him. Colonel Brandon praised Edward for following his heart over his mother's desire. Because Edward's family disowned him, Colonel Brandon offered him a job as his parish pastor. Elinor felt happy for Edward that he was able to find a job with Colonel Brandon and his life is set with his lovely fiancée, Lucy.

While her friends insinuated that Colonel Brandon likes Elinor, she knew deep down that he likes Marianne. After Marianne got sick, they were all concerned for her welfare. Willoughby came back to talk to Marianne but talked to Elinor instead. He told her that he married for money but he was in love with Marianne. Although he admits to impregnating the little girl, she was not entirely blameless. Willoughby also explained to Elinor that he had purer intensions than his actions showed. Elinor responded to Willoughby's explanation by telling him, his actions speak louder than words. In the end, Elinor felt bad for Willoughby and what he went through to realize he is in love with Marianne.

Their mother told Elinor that Colonel Brandon is in love with Marianne and she would actively support a match b/w the 2. After Marianne got well, she wanted to dedicate the next year towards a life of learning. Marianne was mad that in being heartbroken by Willoughby, it almost killed her b/c it led to self-neglect combined with lower resistance led to an opportunistic infection that almost killed her. She laments her past self-absorption while neglecting everyone who tries to help her get over Willoughby. Marianne decided that though she may never forget Willoughby, she will temper her desires. As Elinor recounted his noble intentions, Marianne was saddened that circumstance along with Willoughby lust for his lifestyle conspired to keep them apart. Elinor tries to convince Marianne that Willoughby was selfishly thinking about himself and not Marianne's feelings.

It shocked their mom that Elinor was so affected by the marriage of Edward to Lucy b/c it was Elinor's hope that something would break up their engagement and would make things happy for all concerned. Even though she knew that they were going to get married she wanted to believe that she and Edward would end up together. But Edward surprised all of them by declaring that Lucy married his brother and not him because she was after their money and connections and not Edward's love. Edward decided not to marry Lucy b/c he no longer loved her while he fell for Elinor and loved her. Edward's fancy toward Lucy lay in the fact he was idle and not doing anything with his life and thought Lucy was the best woman for him. Now that he has a profession as a pastor, he knew that Elinor was the woman for him instead of his boyish crush on Lucy. For Elinor, she was elated by the fact that Edward was not marrying Lucy. Lucy writes Edward and tells him that she bears no ill will towards him knowing he was still in love with Elinor. She has found one who better suits her interests in his brother.

Marianne became as devoted to Colonel Brandon as she once was with Willoughby. Meanwhile, Robert was able to woe Lucy by talking about himself which she liked. The Ferrers became dependent on Lucy. Willoughby made Marianne the standard of what a woman should be. Edward and Elinor lived a simple comfortable life ...more

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