Hence, fragile nerves, irritability, hysteria, tremors, fainting spells, and sickness at heart were closely associated with the term (as with Marianne Dashwood’s and Mrs. Spacks elaborates on the 18th century definition of sensibility, which was understood to be derived from the nervous system. She also draws a similarity between two novels, nothing that Willoughby is similar to Henry Crawford in that both men have fallen in love with the women they targeted for a light flirtation and amusement. Her observations include a comparison of characters within the novel – “Miss Steele is as acquisitive in a small way as the John Dashwoods are in a grander fashion”. Spacks’ research adds dimension to Jane Austen’s words and to an era that is long gone, and whose customs have become foreign to our modern understanding. This lush book could easy be confused for a coffee table book – the cover is so beautiful and the color images inside are of the highest quality, but the annotations are anything but superficial.

Sense and Sensibility: An Annoted Edition is published by The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press and edited by noted scholar Patricia Meyer Spacks. The first is the 4th installment of an incomparable anthology series of Jane Austen’s novels. Congratulations Janice Jacobson!) Sense and Sensibility: An Annoted Edition edited by Patricia Meyer Spacks. Both books are necessary additions in the libraries of confirmed Janeites and Jane Austen lovers, or so it is my belief. In winter weather, what can be a better way to pass the time than to curl up under a blanket with a good book? I’d like to recommend two books for you to purchase with the gift money you (hopefully) received this holiday season. I cannot tell you how much I enjoy your comments and thoughts. I hope to write more for my blog in 2014. A Young Girl Reading, or The Reader (French: La Liseuse), is an 18th-century oil painting by Jean-Honoré Fragonard.

Jane Austen's England by Roy A. Adkins