Sense and Sensibility centres on the story of two sisters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood. They appear at first to be opposites - Elinor is rational and sensible and Marianne seems to think and act only on her impulsive feelings and highly charged emotions, though by the end of the book we have witnessed quite a crossover in the way that both girls behave and interact with the world. Jane Austen and her sister were very close. There were just under a couple of years between them, and we know that they spent much of their time together as they grew up, writing daily letters whenever they were apart. From family recollections we are given the impression that Cassandra, Jane's older sister, was the more level-headed, and from her letters it appears that Jane looked to Cassandra for guidance and advice. I'm not the first to wonder if Jane drew on her own experiences with her sister Cassandra when drafting her story. Who knows? Perhaps Elinor and Marianne represent aspects of Jane's own personality, though I'm sure it's not as simple as that. Jane was too great a writer to simply base her characters on people she knew - her imagination was too good!
Margaret, the youngest, is too young to become a heroine in Jane Austen's book, though I have made her one in Willoughby's Return. We are told she is similarly romantic in Sense and Sensibility, and I really enjoyed writing her story.
I've been enjoying my blog tour - click here to read a review of Willoghby's Return from Books Like Breathing.
To celebrate the book's publication I have a competition today to win the painting above of Jane and Cassandra walking in the snow around Steventon. To enter all you have to do is tell me what you enjoyed about the relationship between Elinor and Marianne in Sense and Sensibility. Click here to enter The competition is open worldwide and closes on November 14th. Winner announced on Monday, November 16th!
Tomorrow I shall be a guest on Jane Austen's World, so I hope you'll join me there!