Sense and Sensibility

John Dashwood intends to help his stepmother and half-sisters after inheriting the family estate. Then his wife begins discussing the expense. With every reasonable-sounding objection, his generous plans become smaller. Jane Austen opens this novel about love and money by letting us listen to comfortable people explain why they cannot possibly afford to be kind.

For Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, the consequences are a move to a cottage in Devonshire and a much narrower income. Elinor is used to considering what can sensibly be said or spent. Marianne wants feeling to be wholehearted, whether she is falling in love, playing music or judging someone else’s taste. When a man reads poetry without enough enthusiasm, she finds it difficult to believe he can be a suitable companion for her sister. Their affection is real, but living together does not make it easy for either to understand the other.

Their new neighbours offer plenty of company and very little privacy. Invitations arrive with questions about possible husbands; a blush can become public property before its owner has explained it. Austen moves easily between the comedy of this unwanted attention and the effort of keeping painful feelings to oneself. Both sisters have good reasons for the way they behave, and both must live among people who mistake their manner for the whole of their character. Reading beside them makes a quiet conversation as absorbing as an open declaration: there is always someone deciding how much of the truth they can bear to say.