Sense and Sensibility, Volume the First, Chapters One to Three

In which we are introduced to the members of the Dashwood family, and difficulties with early 19-century British inheritance laws causes problems for the side of the family we like, and in which our narrator won't even pretend to do British accents, don't worry.



Hey, we're back! New book and everything! Spring is finally here after what turned out to be just a terrible March, and we're going to get well and truly rolling again here. Again.

As far as I can tell, there are no "original" illustrations for Sense and Sensibility, as in ones that went with the first printing in 1811. It seems though, that (much like the N. C. Wyeth illustrations from Treasure Island) ones from a later edition have come to be the best known. In this case they are these line drawings by Hugh Thompson from an 1896 edition. Perhaps more importantly, these are the illustrations that were posted in the British Library's astounding public domain Flickr account, so they're the ones I'll be using.

3:48 - His son's son, a child of four years old.

17:40 - "I cannot imagine how they will spend half of it."

Only a couple of quick notes: around 23:00, we hear of the delightful Mrs. John Dashwood's wish that her brother, Edward Ferrars, would be the sort of man who drove a barouche. Not to be confused with the landaus and broughams we met in "A Scandal in Bohemia," a barouche is a four-wheeled carriage with a retractable hood, where the driver sits up front driving two horses, and there is room inside for two couples facing each other. It was obviously very fashionable during the nineteenth century.

At 26:45, we learn of Marianne's admiration for William Cowper, an eighteenth-century poet whose work, often about landscapes and various melancholy stuff, is considered one of the forerunners of Romaticism. Austen loved him, and this is not the last we'll hear about him. He is not to be confused with the anatomist William Cowper, best known for describing what's now known as the Cowper's gland, which is the only thing I can think of when the poet is mentioned.


If you would like to read along, the text can be found at Project Gutenberg, and high-res copies of the Thompson illustrations can be found in the British Library's Flickr stream. No reading ahead, though!