Sense and Sensibility
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作者
Jane Austen
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"Sense and Sensibility" by Jane Austen is a masterful exploration of love, heartbreak, and the contrasting temperaments of two sisters navigating Regency-era English society. The novel opens with the Dashwood family facing financial ruin following the death of Mr. Henry Dashwood, whose estate passes entirely to his son John from a previous marriage. John's cold-hearted wife Fanny persuades him to abandon any meaningful support for his stepmother and half-sisters, forcing Mrs. Dashwood, Elinor, Marianne, and young Margaret to relocate to a modest cottage in Devonshire offered by the kindly Sir John Middleton. The story centers on the romantic fortunes of sensible Elinor and passionate Marianne. Elinor has formed a quiet attachment to Edward Ferrars, Fanny's brother, whose reserved manner and mysterious melancholy hint at hidden complications. Meanwhile, the impetuous Marianne falls headlong into a whirlwind romance with the dashing John Willoughby, whose charm and shared sensibilities seem to promise a perfect match. Their courtship is intense and public, though notably lacking any formal engagement announcement. The sisters' romantic hopes are tested when Willoughby abruptly departs for London under mysterious circumstances, leaving Marianne devastated. Colonel Brandon, a reserved gentleman of thirty-five who harbors a quiet affection for Marianne, watches her suffering with compassion born of his own past heartbreak. Mrs. Jennings, the jovial and matchmaking mother of Lady Middleton, provides comic relief while eagerly speculating on everyone's romantic prospects. Austen weaves themes of prudence versus passion, the constraints placed on women's financial independence, and the often-painful gap between appearance and reality in matters of the heart. The novel examines how society's expectations and economic realities shape romantic choices, while contrasting Elinor's careful restraint with Marianne's emotional abandon. Through visits, balls, and drawing-room conversations, the narrative builds toward revelations about both Willoughby's true character and Edward's secret entanglements, promising consequences that will test both sisters' hearts and principles.
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书籍摘录
CHAPTER I.
The family of Dashwood had long been settled in Sussex. Their estate was large, and their residence was at Norland Park, in the centre of their property, where, for many generations, they had lived in so respectable a manner as to engage the general good opinion of their surrounding acquaintance. The late owner of this estate was a single man, who lived to a very advanced age, and who for many years of his life, had a constant companion and housekeeper in his sister. But her death, which happened ten years before his own, produced a great alteration in his home; for to supply her loss, he invited and received into his house the family of his nephew Mr. Henry Dashwood, the legal inheritor of the Norland estate, and the person to whom he intended to bequeath it. In the society of his nephew and niece, and their children, the old Gentleman’s days were comfortably spent. His attachment to them all increased. The constant attention of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Dashwood to his wishes, which proceeded not merely from interest, but from goodness of heart, gave him every degree of solid comfort which his age could receive; and the cheerfulness of the children added a relish to his existence.
By a former marriage, Mr. Henry Dashwood had one son: by his present lady, three daughters. The son, a steady respectable young man, was amply provided for by the fortune of his mother, which had been large, and half of which devolved on him on his coming of age. By his own marriage, likewise, which happened soon afterwards, he added to his wealth. To him therefore the succession to the Norland estate was not so really important as to his sisters; for their fortune, independent of what might arise to them from their father’s inheriting that property, could be but small. Their mother had nothing, and their father only seven thousand pounds in his own disposal; for the remaining moiety of his first wife’s fortune was also secured to her child, and he had only a life-interest in it.
The old gentleman died: his will was read, and like almost every other will, gave as much disappointment as pleasure. He was neither so unjust, nor so ungrateful, as to leave his estate from his nephew;—but he left it to him on such terms as destroyed half the value of the bequest. Mr. Dashwood had wished for it more for the sake of his wife and daughters than for himself or his son;—but to his...