Sense and Sensibility: Episode 10, Chapters 47-50

In this episode, we read the final chapters of Sense and Sensibility. We talk about Elinor being the ‘moral spokesperson’ for the book, why Marianne marries Colonel Brandon, how Edward is less dashing than both Willoughby and Brandon, the social and financial gap between Elinor and Marianne after their marriages, and Lucy’s marriage to Robert. We also revisit the sense vs sensibility concept, and how the novel is both flawed and wonderful.

We discuss the character of Elinor, then Ellen talks about art, music and writing, and Harriet takes a final look at the popular culture versions.

Things we mention:

References:

• Marjorie Theobauld, Knowing Women: Origins of Women’s Education in Nineteenth-Century Australia (1996)
• Claire Tomalin, Jane Austen: A Life (1997)
• Robert Chapman [Editor], Jane Austen’s Letters to her Sister Cassandra and Others (1969)

Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century women writers:

• Married/de facto
  • Mary Brunton (1778–1818): Self-Control (1810)
  • Fanny Burney (1752–1840): Cecilia (1782 – written before she was married), Camilla (1796 – written after she was married)
  • Anna Barbauld (1743–1825)
  • Martha Sherwood (1775–1851): The Fairchild Family (1818)
  • Mary Shelley (1797–1851)
  • Margaret Gatty (1809–1873)
  • Elizabeth Gaskell (1810–1865)
  • Anna Lefroy (1793–1872)
  • George Eliot (1793–1872)
• Single
  • Charlotte Brontë (1816–1855)
  • Emily Brontë (1818–1848)
  • Anne Brontë (1820–1849)
  • Maria Edgeworth (1768–1849): Belinda (1801)
  • Hannah More (1745–1833): Coelebs in Search of a Wife (1808)
  • Susan Ferrier (1782–1854)

Adaptations of the book:

• BBC, Sense and Sensibility (1971) – starring Joanna David and Ciaran Madden (4 episodes)
• BBC, Sense and Sensibility (1981) – starring Irene Richard and Tracey Childs (7 episodes)
• Columbia Pictures, Sense and Sensibility (1995) – starring Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet
• BBC, Sense and Sensibility (2008) – starring Hattie Morahan and Charity Wakefield (3 episodes)

Modernisations of the book:

• Sri Surya Films, Kandukondain Kandukondain (2000) – starring Tabu and Aishwarya Rai
• MWM Studios, From Prada to Nada (2011) – starring Camilla Belle and Alexa PenaVega
• Silver Peak Productions, Scents and Sensibility (2011) – starring Ashley Williams and Marla Sokoloff
• Joanna Trollope, Sense & Sensibility (The Austen Project #1) (2013)

Creative commons music used:

• Extract from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Sonata No. 12 in F Major, ii. Adagio.
• Extract from Joseph Haydn, Piano Sonata No. 38. Performance by Ivan Ilić, recorded in Manchester in December, 2006. File originally from IMSLP.
• Extract from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Sonata No. 13 in B-Flat Major, iii. Allegretto Grazioso. File originally from Musopen.
• Extract from George Frideric Handel, Suite I, No. 2 in F Major, ii. Allegro. File originally from Musopen.
• Extract from Christoph Willibald Gluck, Orfeo ed Euridice. File from IMSLP.
• Extract from Ludwig van Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 28 in A major. File originally from Musopen.