Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
I wish, as well as everybody else, to be perfectly happy; but, like everybody else, it must be in my own way.
Two sisters, Marianne and Elinor Dashwood, are like chalk and cheese when it comes to romance: Marianne wears her heart on her sleeve and her older sister Elinor is rational and cautious. When Marianne falls for the charming but unsuitable John Willoughby, Elinor warns her that her impulsive behaviour could become the centre of gossip and scandal. At the same time, Elinor struggles to keep her own lonely experience of heartbreak private.
In a world governed by the codes of polite society, money, and patriarchal concerns, the two sisters learn from each other that in their world, a mixture of sense and sensibility is required to find a lasting romance. Published anonymously by ‘A lady’ in 1811, Sense & Sensibility is of the best-loved novels by Jane Austen.