Sense and Sensibility, Volume the First, Chapters Four to Eight

In which the Dashwoods move out of the home in which they are now unwelcome into a more "modest" cottage, we are introduced to their overly expressive landlord, his boring wife, her dirty old woman mother, and their reserved colonel friend, and in which our narrator really must learn to talk about "balls" in a more appropriate manner.



Here we're introduced to the Dashwoods' new cottage home at Barton where (at around 17:35) we hear about its "demesne," or the manor land reserved for the lord's own use (in this case, their front yard) and "the offices," which means their kitchen and pantry.

At about 23:02, we get to the sole illustration in these five chapters:

23:02 - So shy before company.

And then a couple of other notes: at 26:47, Sir John is unable to get many people to come to his party because "it was moonlight" and many already had engagements. Back in those days, clear nights with a lot of moonlight were preferred for social activities, because it made it easier to travel along the dark country roads.

Last, at 30:10 we hear how Mrs. Jennings is a widow with "ample jointure," and I think I should get credit for not snickering at that, but that just means that she was left a good deal of money in her late husband's will.


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!