Sense and Sensibility

The story revolves around two sisters, Elinor and Marianne. Elinor is level-headed and self-controlled. Marianne is passionate and impulsive. When their father dies, his first son by a previous marriage takes possession of the family home against the fathers dying wishes. Elinor, Marianne and their mother remove to a cottage and each sister meets a man in whom she is interested. As with other Austen novels, requited love does not come easily, and many revelations and a trip to London are needed before a resolution can be found. When Sense and Sensibility first appeared, the words of its title had enormous cultural weight: Austen was addressing and also satirizing notions of sensibility, the meaning of which, while akin to the current use of "sensitivity," was already a subject of debate. Sensibility had been considered the incorporation of reason and feeling, a virtue according to many that would lead people into correct and benevolent behaviour and that marked them as intellectually and morally superior.