In its marvelously perceptive portrayal of two young lovestruck women, Sense and Sensibility provesthat Jane Austens novels, along with their perfection of form and tone, are full of strong feeling.

Its two heroinesso utterly unlike each otherboth undergo the most violent passions when they are separated from the men they love. What differentiates them, and gives this extraordinary book its complexity and brilliance, is the way each expresses her suffering: Marianneyoung, impetuous, ardentfalls into paroxysms of grief when she is rejected by the dashing John Willoughby; while her sister, Elinorwiser, more sensible, more self-controlledmasks her despair when it appears that Edward Ferrars is to marry the mean-spirited and cunning Lucy Steele. All, of course, ends happilybut not until Elinors sense and Mariannes sensibility have equally worked to reveal the profound emotional life that runs beneath the surface of Austens immaculate and irresistible art.