Sense and Sensibility Jane Austen

Sense and Sensibility, published in 1811, is a British novel by Jane Austen. A work of romantic fiction, Sense and Sensibility is set in southwest England in 1792, and portrays the life and loves of the Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne. The sisters are starkly different from each other; Elinor is the epitome of prudence and self-control while Marianne embodies emotion and enthusiasm.

The essential theme of the novel is the necessity of finding a workable middle ground between passion and reason. How both the sisters reacts to their romantic misfortunes, and the lessons they draw before coming finally to the requisite happy ending forms the heart of the novel. Though Marianne's disregard for social conventions and willingness to consider the world well-lost for love may appeal to modern readers, it is Elinor whom Austen herself most evidently admired; a truly happy marriage, she shows us, exists only where sense and sensibility meet and mix in proper measure.