Sense and Sensibility
A level 5 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. Retold for Learners of English by Clare West.
Sometimes the Dashwood girls do not seem like sisters. Elinor is all calmness and reason, and can be relied upon for practical, common sense opinions. Marianne, on the other hand, is all sensibility, full of passionate and romantic feeling. She has no time for dull common sense – or for middle-aged men of thirty-five, long past the age of marriage. True love can only be felt by the young, of course. And if your heart is broken at the age of seventeen, how can you ever expect to recover from the passionate misery that fills your life, waking and sleeping?
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SENSE AND SENSIBILITY
If you have strong feelings, is it better to express them, eagerly and passionately, to the whole world? Is it wise? And if you always show the world a calm face and a quiet voice, does this mean there is no passion, no fire in your heart?
When the Dashwood sisters have to move to Devon with their widowed mother, they are sad to leave the family home, now owned by their wealthy half-brother. The girls are quite poor, but they still have several admirers. There is shy Edward Ferrars, the romantic and handsome Mr Willoughby, the sad and silent Colonel Brandon.
But the course of true love does not run smoothly at first. Hopes of marriage disappear, guilty secrets come to light, hearts are broken. But which sister feels it more? Calm and sensible Elinor, smiling bravely and saying not a word – or romantic Marianne, sobbing wildly and passionately all night long …
PEOPLE IN THIS STORY
Mrs Dashwood, a widow, living in Devonshire
Mr John Dashwood, Mrs Dashwood’s stepson
Mrs John Dashwood (Fanny), John Dashwood’s wife, and sister-in-law to the Dashwood girls
Edward Ferrars, Fanny Dashwood’s brother
Robert Ferrars, Edward’s younger brother
Mrs Ferrars, mother to Edward, Robert, and Fanny
Sir John Middleton, the Dashwoods’ neighbour in Devonshire
Lady Middleton, Sir John’s wife
Mrs Jennings, Lady Middleton’s mother
Mrs Charlotte Palmer, Lady Middleton’s sister
Mr Palmer, Charlotte’s husband
Colonel Brandon, Sir John Middleton’s friend
John Willoughby, a young man
Mrs Smith, an elderly relation of Willoughby’s
The publishers are grateful to Columbia Pictures for their kind permission to reproduce photographs from the 1995 motion picture, Sense and Sensibility, directed by Ang Lee. This film was a huge international success and won many awards, including an Oscar for the screenplay written by Emma Thompson, who also acted the part of Elinor. The film was very faithful to the novel and brilliantly conveyed Jane Austen’s wit and irony to a modern audience.
1
The Dashwood family
For very many years there had been Dashwoods living in Sussex, in the south of England. The family owned a large area of land around their country house, Norland Park. Recently the head of the family, an unmarried man of great age, had invited into his home his nephew, who was expected to inherit the house and land, with his wife and children. The nephew, Mr Henry Dashwood, and his wife behaved kindly and thoughtfully towards the old gentleman, not from interest in his fortune, but from goodness of heart, so that he was able to spend his last years comfortably with these pleasant and cheerful companions.
By his first wife Mr Henry Dashwood had one son, John; by his present wife, three daughters. John, a respectable, serious young man, had received a large inheritance from his mother, and had also added to his wealth by his own marriage. To him, therefore, the Norland fortune was not as important as to his sisters, who had very little money of their own.
