When Mr. Dashwood dies, his estate passes by law to his son from an earlier marriage, leaving his widow and three daughters with a sharply reduced income and no home of their own. The two eldest, sensible Elinor and passionate Marianne, embody the novel's title: Elinor governs her feelings with restraint and discretion, while Marianne believes emotion should be expressed openly and romance felt to the fullest.
As the sisters resettle in a modest Devonshire cottage, both fall in love and both are wounded. Elinor conceals her attachment to the reserved Edward Ferrars, who is bound by a secret obligation, while Marianne gives her heart wholly to the dashing John Willoughby, only to be publicly abandoned. Around them, Austen anatomizes a marriage market ruled by money, family maneuvering, and reputation.
Sense and Sensibility was Jane Austen's first published novel, appearing in 1811. A sharp, often funny study of two ways of meeting heartbreak, it argues, gently, that neither cold prudence nor unchecked feeling is enough on its own.