Classic Corner #1

 Sense & Sensibility by Jane Austen

My favourite Austen novel is DRUM ROLL.............................Sense & Sensibility!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nope, its not Pride & Prejudice as much as I do like that book I much prefer Sense & Sensibility. The young Miss Dashwood's are just more appealing to me than the Bennett sisters as much as I love them all. I also and I warn you this may shock many an Austenite, PREFER Colonel Brandon over Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy. I know, I am a strange one but that's how I feel. I do not dislike Darcy I just enjoy reading about Brandon more. In my eyes he is just a better character he appeals to me more. Don't get me wrong I wouldn't kick Darcy out of bed for eating crisps (especially if he is Colin Firth) but the sentimental soppy side of me is much more fond of good old Colonel Brandon. After reading sense and sensibility not that long ago I watched the Movie adaption starring Kate Winslet and Alan Rickman and that has cemented my love for them for all eternity.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Jane Austen. Sense & Sensibility was her first novel to be published back in 1811. The novel portrays the lives of Elinor & Marrianne Dashwood. When the girls father lays dying in his grand home of Norland. His house must by law pass to his son John, the child he had with his first wife. His second wife and his daughters Elinor, Marrianne and Margaret stand to inherit only a very small income. His wife and daughters are at the mercy of thier half-brother so he enacts a promise from John that upon his now imminent death that the girls be looked after. Johns wife Fanny an awful selfish greedy manipulative women persuades her husband to renege on his promise to his recently deceased father. They waste no time in arriving at Norland and the Dashwood women become unwanted guests in what was up untill very recently their home. They must look elsewhere for accommodation.

Shortly after the arrival of thier brother and his wife. Fanny,s brother Edward Ferrers who is the opposite of his sibling in that he is kind, unassuming, intelligent and a little reserved arrives at Norland to visit his sister. Edward quickly forms an attachment to Elinor but Fanny disapproves of the match and does what she can to quell it before it's began. Fanny implies to Mrs Dashwood that Elinor's out for money rather than love. Mrs Dashwood furious at the implication hurries her search for new living arrangements.

It's not long before the Dashwood women move to their new considerably less grand home of Barton Cottage in Devonshire. Mrs Dashwoods cousin Sir John Middleton welcomes the girls and they are introduced almost immediately into local society. It is through Sir John that we meet Colonel Brandon and it is not long before his feeling towards Marrianne are made apparent. Marrianne is horrified and considers Brandon to be far too old for her. He,s only 35years old but anyway.

While out on a walk Marianne meets John Willoughby after she gets caught in a downpour, slips and twists her ankle. Willoughby comes to her rescue and carries her home. As they become acquainted with each other it becomes apparent that they both enjoy poetry, music and art. Marrianne quickly becomes besotted with the handsome Willoughby. His attention he gives Marrianne becomes so overt that Elinor and her mother believe them to be secretly engaged. So it is a shock when Willoughby unexpectly announces that his Aunt is sending him to London on business indefinitely. Marrianne is heartbroken.

Edward Ferrars makes an appearance at Barton cottage but only stays briefly. He seems out of sorts and Elinor fears that he no longer feels the same way about her as she does him. She keeps her pain to herself not wanting to burden her family with it. She learns a short time later from Lady Middletons cousin Lucy Steele that Edward has been engaged to Lucy for the past four years. It becomes apparent that poor Edward has been forced into a loveless engagement by his family. Elinor is heartbroken but she cannot blame Edward for being honourable and she pity's him.

Marrianne and Elinor accompany Mrs Jennings (Sir Johns mother in law) to London for the winter. While in London Marrianne learns from a letter from Whilloby that he is engaged to be married enclosed with this letter are all her correspondence with him and a lock of hair she had given him as a token of love. Marrianne confesses to her sister that the two were not secretly engaged like Elinor and Mrs Dashwood had once thought but that she did love him and had believed that it was mutual. Brandon seeing how hurt Marrianne is confides in Elinor that Whilloby had in the past seduced Brandon's young ward impregnated and abondoned her. Miss Williams the girl in question had been the daughter of his Father's Ward whom he had fallen in love with but whom his father had refused to allow him to marry and arranged for her to be married to his older brother.

While in London the girls reluctantly have to visit Fanny. Fanny has invited Lucy and Ann Steele. Ann let's slip that Lucy is secretly engaged to Edward and Fanny furiously has them sent on thier way. Edward refuses to break the engagement and is disinherted. Colonel Brandon impressed by his offers Edward a living at his Delaford parsonage. Mrs Jennings then takes the two heartbroken Dashwood girls to the country to visit her daughter who has just given birth to her first child. Marrianne falls dangerously ill and Whilloby comes to visit her. He tells Elinor that he has been disinherited because of what he did to the young Miss Williams and that is why he had to marry for money rather than love. When Marriane is recovered she tells her of the visit and she resigns that while she loved Whilloby she would not have been happy with him.

Upon returning home to Barton cottage. Elinor des overs that Lucy and Mr Ferrars have married.
She is devastated untill Edward arrives and explains that after he was disinherted Lucy released him from their engagement in favour of his younger brother. He makes his feeling known and they are married soon after. Marrianne also over time falls in love with the lovely Colonol Brandon and they too are married. So it's happy ending all round really. I find it really hard to fathom why some people would prefer to see Marrianne with Whilloby I really feel that those who think that do not fully grasp the point Jane Austen is trying to make with book.