Sense and Sensibility

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Recommended: Jane Austen and her style of writing

Sense and Sensibility

Jane Austen was born on December 16, 1775, in Seventon Parsonage in Hampshire England. She was the seventh child of eight children. She was well educated by her father, who was a clergyman. When she was young she started writing novels for her family. It took her fifteen years to find a publisher, but when she did, her words became very widely known. To this day she is considered to be the first great woman novelist. Austen’s novels are mostly set in her own upper middle class English Country environment. They are based upon a young woman heroine who always ends up happily married. Austen shows how people struggle with issues of monetary value and the unhappiness it brings. She also shows how people struggle with their feelings and emotions for each other. In her novels, all the characters learn a lesson. The book Sense and Sensibility was published in 1811, and it is based on the observation of the people of her time. Because her novels always express the patterns of behavior of the people of her time, people find then informative as well as entertaining.
Sense and Sensibility is about the Dashwoods, who are struggling to overcome the death of their father and husband. When he died, they were left virtually penniless, and because the law says that everything is passed down to the son of the decease the family is left with nothing and no place to live. The Dashwoods move in to a small cottage in Barton. But before they leave the oldest daughter falls in love with Edward Farris. Edward is part of England’s upper class, and his sister does not approve of his relationship with Elinor Farris, so she sends him away to London. Shortly after moving to Barton, another on of the Dashwood girls, Marianne, meets Mr. Willouby after she falls down while running in the rain. Willouby is quite handsome and soon he and Marianne become quite fond of each other. Willouby’s family does not like the idea of him marrying a poor girl, and they threaten to strip him of his wealth and inheritance if he marries her. At about the same time, Elinor finds out that Edward has been secretly engaged to someone else for five years.

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