Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

Hello Dragonflies!

This month we will be reading Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. This is the first novel by Jane Austen and was published in 1811. It was published anonymously: By A Lady appears on the titele page where the author's name might have been.

The novel is probably set between 1792 and 1797 and follows the three Dashwood sisters and their widowed mother as they are forced to leave the family estate in Sussex and move to a modest cottage on the property of distant relative in Devon. There the two eldest girls experience love and heartbreak that tries the contrasting characters of both.

Austen drew inspiration for Sense and Sensibility from other novels of the 1790s that treated similar themes, including Adam Stevenson's Life and Love (1785) which he had written about himself and a relationship that was not meant to be. Jane West's A Gossip's Story (1796), which features one sister full of rational sense and another sister of romantic, emotive sensibility, is considered to have been an inspiration as well. West's romantic sister-heroine also shares her first name, Marianne, with Austen's. There are further textual similarities, described in a modern edition of West's novel.

As always you dont have to read the book to join the challenge.

Happy reading and see you soon.