Introduction & Notes by Professor Stephen Arkin San Francisco University ' Young women who have no economic or political power must attend to the serious business of contriving material security' Jane Austen's sardonic humour lays bare the stratagems the hypocrisy & the poignancy inherent in the struggle of two very different sisters to achieve respectability Sense & Sensibility is a delightful comedy of manners in which the sisters Elinor & Marianne represent these two qualities Elinor's character is one of Augustan detachment while Marianne a fervent disciple of the Romantic Age learns to curb her passionate nature in the interests of survival This book the first of Austen's novels to be published remains as fresh a cautionary tale today as it ever was