Sense and Sensibility

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Broadview Press, Apr 3, 2001 - Fiction - 427 pages

Jane Austen’s first published novel, Sense and Sensibility, is a witty satire of the sentimental novel, a popular genre in Britain throughout the 1790s and the Regency. When it first appeared in 1811, the words in its title carried significant cultural weight beyond the confines of the novel, and into both popular and learned discourse. Through her dual heroines, Austen addresses, and satirizes, notions of sense and sensibility, and engages with the issues of inheritance, marriage, and love.

The story concerns two sisters: the level-headed Elinor and the passionate and impulsive Marianne. When their father dies, his son by a previous marriage assumes possession of the family home. Marianne and Elinor, left to the care of their mercenary brother John and his wife Fanny, must remove to a cottage with their mother. Each sister meets a man in whom she is interested, and as with other Austen novels, requited love does not come easily.

This newly annotated edition offers a thorough and perceptive introduction and a wide range of carefully selected contextual materials that further explore the term “sensibility.”

 

Contents

Acknowledgements
6
Introduction
7
A Brief Chronology
34
A Note on the Text
37
Sense and Sensibility
39
Reviews ofSense and Sensibility
383
Sensibility
386
The Picturesque
407
Map of London
411
Modes of Travel
413
Marianne Dashwoods Reading
415
Select Bibliography
423
Copyright

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About the author (2001)

Kathleen James-Cavan of the Department of English at the University of Saskatchewan, has written widely on 19th-century British fiction.

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