Sense and Sensibility

Jane Austen · 1775–1817 · England

Why it matters

Two sisters, one guarded by reason, one governed by feeling, navigate love and financial precarity after their father's death leaves them dependent on unreliable men. Austen's first published novel, and her plainest statement of the temperamental contrast she'd spend her career complicating.

At a glance

Clear early Austen prose, though less subtle than the free indirect style she'd later perfect.