Sense and Sensibility

Elinor governs every feeling; Marianne refuses to govern any. Left with a small income and no prospects, the sisters move through a society in which money settles who may marry whom and manners exist to conceal intent. Austen's first published novel counts the cost of self-command and the cost of its absence, and does not say which is dearer. In this Gilded Library volume the text sits among paintings — drawing rooms, country estates, rain-swept walks — beside roses, folded letters and silk ribbon in the decoration.