Is Sense and Sensibility a true reflection of life in Georgian Britain? The real history behind the new adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel

Is Sense and Sensibility a true reflection of life in Georgian Britain? The real history behind the new adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel A dying Henry Dashwood is clear about his wishes. His son and heir, John, should provide for his stepmother and his three half-sisters, Elinor, Marianne and Margaret. But John’s wife, Fanny, sees things differently, which leaves the quartet facing life in greatly reduced circumstances… Published in October 1811 in an edition that credited the text only to “A Lady”, Jane Austen first began working on Sense and Sensibility at the end of the 18th century. The first draft was written in epistolary form, a style popularised by Samuel Richardson (1689–1761), a novelist she admired. The revised approach likely gave Austen more flexibility in exploring the world of the Dashwoods, and their struggles to adjust to a life where they are often reliant on the kindness and assistance of family and friends. The new version is directed by Georgia Oakley. It’s her second feature after her acclaimed Blue Jean (2022), which was set in 1988 and focused on the effects of Section 28 legislation on a lesbian teacher. Sense and Sensibility stars Daisy Edgar-Jones (Normal People, Twisters) as Elinor and Esmé Creed-Miles (Hanna, The Chronology of Water) as Marianne, two young women with contrasting attitudes to life and love. Is the new version of Sense and Sensibility faithful to Jane Austen’s novel? Broadly, yes. Despite, for example, the timeline differing from the novel in key respects, the sweep of the film will be familiar to anyone who has read the novel. It shows the Dashwoods swapping a grand country house existence in Sussex for a modest cottage in Devon, cheaply rented to them by a second cousin, Sir John Middleton (Turlough Convery). The future for the Dashwood girls, including Margaret, who is still a child, is uncertain. Living in genteel semi-poverty, they are unattractive matches for any man looking to increase his family’s fortune, not an easy situation for young women dreaming of finding happiness in marriage. A few plot points have been tweaked by the film’s scriptwriter, Diana Reid, but the overall trajectory of film and book are similar. Where some Austen purists may quibble is in the extent to which the film draws out the contrasts between Elinor, a pragmatist who represents ‘sense’, and Marianne, a romantic who embodies ‘sensibility’. In particular, this version of Marianne has something of the wildness of a heroine from a Gothic romance. Or perhaps the Victorian-era novels of the Brontës. It doesn’t seem coincidental that, in choosing Devon locations, the filmmakers headed for the windswept uplands of Dartmoor. Conversely, perhaps this is in its way authentic to Jane Austen. For all she satirised potboilers such as Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho in Northanger Abbey (completed in 1798–99, but published posthumously in 1817), Austen did so from the perspective of an avid reader who devoured all kinds of books. WATCH | Becoming Jane Austen: the early life of a literary legend How difficult were Georgian laws on inheritance for women? Georgian society was patriarchal and vast estates routinely passed to the eldest son, but that doesn’t mean women couldn’t inherit as is sometimes supposed. Indeed, look beyond the Dashwoods and, while some of these nuances are not as clear in the new screen version as in the novel, women whose circumstances are shaped by financial settlements do much to drive the plot of Sense and Sensibility. Elinor’s love interest, for example, is Edward Ferrars (George MacKay), whose mother is a widow with control over her own fortune and holds the power to disinherit her children, with which she spitefully threatens them. Mrs Jennings (Fiona Shaw), the widowed mother-in-law of Sir John Middleton, is also independently wealthy, able to invite Elinor and Marianne to London, where she has a townhouse, and travel around in her own carriage. Contemporary readers would have understood that, because her money came from ‘trade’, she was considered less genteel than those who derived their incomes from land. Expansive, big-hearted and having used her money to guide her own daughters towards socially advantageous marriages, Jennings herself doesn’t give a hoot about what the world thinks. This helps to make her an immensely attractive character in both novel and film. Is Sense and Sensibility autobiographical? Not directly, but you don’t have to look far to find parallels with Austen’s life. Austen’s father, George, a Church of England cleric, died suddenly in 1805. This left his widow, Cassandra, and the couple’s unmarried daughters, Cassandra and Jane, in a difficult financial situation. Family members helped financially, but the trio spent a lot of time visiting relatives. They didn’t really settle in a new home until 1809, when Jane’s wealthy brother, Edward, offered them the use of a cottage in Chawton, Hampshire. Further financial issues lay ahead for the wider family. In 1816, a bank where Jane’s brother, Henry, was a partner, Austen, Maunde & Tilson, failed amidst the economic slump that followed the end of the Napoleonic Wars. Other members of the family, including Edward, who had acted as a financial guarantor for his brother, lost out too. Where did Jane Austen herself stand on sense versus sensibility? Watching Sense and Sensibility, Elinor has many of the attributes we associate with her creator, notably a dry wit and a high degree of emotional control. And yet it would be a mistake to think of Austen as someone utterly unlike Marianne. Like Marianne, for instance, she loved the arts. And perhaps this is anyway a false binary. In 1802, Austen accepted and then almost immediately turned down a marriage proposal from the improbably named Harris Bigg-Wither. Had she married, she would have gained financial security. You can as easily frame this as a decision born of sense (why share your life with someone when you are not certain it’s the right thing to do?) or sensibility (it seems likely she didn’t love him and, anyway, her most enduring passion was writing). Did Austen base her characters on real-life people? Looking beyond the Dashwoods, it has been speculated that Colonel Brandon (Herbert Nordrum), who is attracted to Marianne and has spent time out east, was partly based on Warren Hastings, the first governor-general of India. Well-connected contemporary readers might have noticed, for example, how Brandon’s ward shared a first name with someone rumoured to have been Hastings’ daughter, Austen’s cousin (and later sister-in-law) Eliza de Feuillide. Hastings was noted for having taken up his pistol on a matter of honour and, without giving away spoilers, a duel is a key moment in the film. A precise antecedent for Marianne’s other suitor, rakish and self-serving John Willoughby (Frank Dillane), is less easy to discern. What was the attitude of Georgian society to proposals of marriage? Marriage was a serious business in Georgian society. Break an engagement and, whether you were a man or a woman, you risked being sued for breach of promise because you had gone back on a binding contract. This is why it is so important for Elinor and Marianne that the men to whom they are attracted actually say the words and propose. Sense and Sensibility is in UK cinemas now