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Archive for the ‘Sense and Sensibility’ Category

Thoughts on Sense and Sensibility (2026)

Posted in Film adaptation, Film review, Jane Austen Films, Jane Austen's World, Sense and Sensibility, tagged , on October 27, 2026| 14 Comments »

Dear readers, I confess I was delighted by the newest film adaptation of Sense and Sensibility. However, in saying that, I realize that I invite much debate in the comments. But that is all part of the fun of a new adaptation. Some will love it. Some will hate it. Others will enjoy picking it to pieces and debating what they loved or hated.

For me, going to the movie theater to watch a film is a rare treat. Plus, Austen movies provide much nostalgia and joy for me. I grew up watching the film adaptations with my parents, and I have many wonderful memories of rainy-day Austen movie marathons. I passed that down to my now-adult daughter, who grew up watching Austen film adaptations with me. A night out at the movies together was a glorious fall treat for us.

Spoiler alert: My thoughts below include a few basic spoilers that most Austen fans will already know about, but if you’ve never read Sense and Sensibility or seen any of the film adaptations, you might want to wait to read this. For everyone else, if you want to see the film without knowing much about it beforehand, feel free to come back and read this after you see it.

The Basics

First of all, I will of course admit that the film includes many historical, textual, and literary inaccuracies, like most modern Austen film adaptations. So, if you’re a true purest, you will probably detest this film. You might still want to see it so you know what all the fuss is about, but maybe wait and stream it later it in the comfort of your own home.

Second, if you liked or hated the 2005 Pride and Prejudice adaptation, you will most likely love or hate this film. Both films come from Focus Features and Working Title Films, and it’s clear that the idea behind this new film was and is to create another experience much like the 2005 P&P. The style and cinematography are quite similar, as are the types of textual and historical inaccuracies.

For those of you who tend to enjoy lavish Austen film adaptations, knowing that certain liberties will be taken in film-making, you’ll probably enjoy this one.

Daisy Edgar-Jones as Elinor Dashwood and George MacKay as Edward Ferrars.

Cinematography

I have to start with the filmmaking itself. The cinematography in this film is gorgeous, emotional, and extremely moving. The sweeping countryside, the landscapes, and the seaside are beautiful. Barton cottage and the lovely country setting around it were all a feast for the eyes.

There is something so comforting about being transported into Austen’s world with its country estates, cottages, gardens, rolling hills, visits, and balls. The décor, the carriages, and the costuming all provided a visual treat. I want to see the movie again, just to take in all of the aesthetic details.

Esmé Creed-Miles as Marianne walking at Norland.

The Characters and Actors

I was also pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed several of the casting choices. Daisy Edgar-Jones blew me away as Elinor Dashwood. She captured Elinor’s quiet, reserved nature while still allowing us to see her depth of feeling beneath the surface. I also enjoyed George MacKay as Edward Ferrars. He was reserved, manly, honorable, and thoughtful. He and Edgar-Jones had wonderful chemistry throughout the film. Several scenes brought me to tears.

Bodhi Rae Breathnach as Margaret Dashwood, Daisy Edgar-Jones as Elinor, and George MacKay as Edward Ferrars (l-r).

Herbert Nordrum as Colonel Brandon was intriguing to me (though I admit, I was hoping he would tidy up his hair and beard as the film progressed – I always love a little “glow-up” in a movie). I don’t know if anyone can ever replace Alan Rickman in my mind, but Nordrum kept me captivated. His quiet mannerisms reminded me a bit of Gabriel Oak (Matthias Schoenaerts) in the 2015 film adaptation of Far from the Madding Crowd.

Herbert Nordrum as Colonel Brandon.

And then there was Fiona Shaw who I felt was brilliant as Mrs. Jennings. I thought she stole the show! Her role didn’t stick to the text perfectly, but she captured the air of Mrs. Jennings beautifully. The whole theater giggled every time she spoke during the entirety of the film. I’ll leave it at that, just so I don’t spoil the fun.

Fiona Shaw as Mrs. Jennings.

Now, on to the characters who were not quite so delightful.

I hated Willoughby, but in the best possible way. Frank Dillane made Willoughby positively despicable. At first, my daughter and I thought, “oh no, it’s going to be hard to hate him,” but he became easily hate-able very quickly. My main complaint about Willoughby and Marianne was that the film took very little time to develop their love story.

Esmé Creed-Miles as Marianne was not quite to my taste, but I may be in the minority. Her portrayal was simply not the Marianne I have always imagined. She seemed more like a character in a gothic period piece like Wuthering Heights, which I can appreciate, but I have never seen Marianne in that light.

I found Sir John Middleton, played by Turlough Convery, to be a bit too much. Lady Middleton, played by Chloe Pirrie, was another interesting choice. I found her funny, but I didn’t like that she was made into a comic character instead of the elegant, cold, distant, snobbish woman she is in the novel.

Frank Dillane as Mr. Willoughby.

Personal Pet Peeves

My two biggest pet peeves were Marianne’s hair and costuming and the dancing at the balls. Marianne’s stringy, unkempt hair hanging around her face throughout the film drove me crazy. She looked like a lost waif for most of the film. Elinor’s was half-up, half-down quite a bit, but it at least looked romantic and lovely.

Esmé Creed-Miles as Marianne.

The dances seemed strange and very un-Regency-like in my mind. They were almost modern or Avant-garde at times. In several scenes, the dancing was inappropriate between men and women and nothing like Austen would have seen in a ballroom. Because of that, the dancing was quite distracting.

I did a bit of research and it seems as though the dance choreography in the film is getting quite a bit of criticism. I found this article by Dr. Meg Kobza, a historian at Newcastle University, quite helpful in understanding the topic: “What Was Going On With The Dancing In Sense And Sensibility? A Regency Expert Explains.”

Ballroom scene in new Sense and Sensibility film.

Fun for Austen Fans

Overall, I enjoyed the film as a romantic at heart. I loved being immersed in the countryside, the music, the costumes and ballrooms, the gatherings of family and friends, and the familiar world of Austen’s characters. Most of all, I enjoyed seeing how another generation of filmmakers imagines Austen’s characters and the world of her novels.

I think most Austen fans who love a new adaptation and can bear with some of the usual inaccuracies will enjoy this one. If you are longing for a lovely Austen-esque fall treat, if you enjoy new Austen films for the fun discussion they inevitably invite, or if you like to watch new film adaptations for the mere pleasure of seeing Austen’s legacy continue to grow and progress to new and wider audiences, this one is worth seeing. If you just want a night out to see a beautiful film that’s clean and fun, then this is just the ticket.

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Jane Austen Summer Program 2025: Sensibility & Domesticity

Posted in 19th Century England, Jane Austen Summer Program, Jane Austen's World, Sense and Sensibility, tagged , on July 28, 2025| 2 Comments »

By Brenda S. Cox

Last month, June 19-22, I had the joy of attending JASP, the Jane Austen Summer Program. I had only attended once before, during covid when it was online. That was fantastic, so I was delighted to finally get to go in person.

This year’s theme was Sensibility and Domesticity. The focus was on Sense and Sensibility (S&S), domestic arts, and trans-Atlantic connections between the young USA and Austen’s England.

Laura Klein and Megan Poff play and sing pieces from Jane Austen’s own playlist that relate to Sense and Sensibility, such as “Begone Dull Care” which they connected with Willoughby. JASP 2025

Plenary Sessions

Plenary talks explored household books of the time; effects of the war on home life; “The Constitutional Safeguard of a Flannel Waistcoat”; and the Jane Austen Playlist, with a performance of songs connected to S&S.

In “Reading the Americas with Jane Austen,” Susan Allen Ford (author of What Jane Austen’s Characters Read And Why) explained what Austen would have learned about the Americas in books Austen is known to have read. For example, novelist Charlotte Turner Smith used her study of botany and travel writing to describe American scenery, as a teaching technique. In the introduction to her collection of tales, The Letters of a Solitary Wanderer, Smith argues that “young persons, who have no taste for any thing but narrative, may sometimes, by the local description of a Novel, learn what they would never have looked for in books of Geography or Natural History.” However, she presents Native Americans as savage and violent.

Anne Grant’s Memoirs of an American Lady, which Austen also read, gives a different perspective. It shows Native Americans as noble friends. Grant grew up in close contact with Mohawks, even learning to speak their language. Austen was able to get multiple perspectives on North America.

Susan Allen Ford, who spoke on Austen’s readings about America, shows rare books. JASP 2025

Jennie Batchelor, author of Jane Austen Embroidery, offered two fun embroidery workshops and a final plenary on “Transatlantic Domestic Arts in the Era of Jane Austen.” Jennie told us about resources used by women in England and America at the time, such as The Young Ladies School of Arts. That book gives instructions and receipts (recipes) for many kinds of ladies’ activities, from breeding canaries to gilding. It includes the technical, scientific knowledge needed for many of these skills. Fashionable boarding schools also taught such arts.

As one example, Sense and Sensibility mentions filigree work, which Lady Middleton expected Lucy to do at night by candlelight. Elinor kindly volunteered to assist Lucy. Filigree is quilling: cutting and rolling up small pieces of paper and fastening them onto a surface. This was quite fiddly, eye-straining work that Lucy was constrained to do in order to please her hostess.

Jennie Batchelor led two embroidery workshops, following patterns she adapted from magazines of Austen’s time. Some participants are tracing patterns onto their fabric at the windows, as Austen might have done. JASP 2025

Context Corners and Discussion Groups

I was particularly looking forward to one special feature of JASP: context corners and discussion groups. Graduate students led four 15-minute sessions (“context corners”) discussing various aspects of Sense and Sensibility. Topics connected S&S with sensibility and sisters; inheritance law; the East Indies; and “Scandal and the Fallen Woman.” For that final topic, we considered when the “fallen woman” was considered morally corrupt and when she began to be considered as a victim of immoral men or capitalism. We also learned definitions of a “rake” and saw comparisons with real people, noting similarities between William, Lord Craven, and the fictional John Willoughby.

In a Context Corner on “Scandal and the Fallen Woman,” Nellie Downie told us about a real Dashwood family who were involved in various scandals. They were quite different from Austen’s Dashwoods. JASP 2025

After each context corner talk, we split up into small groups named after places in S&S. Mine was Norland Park. Using lists of excellent discussion questions and quotes, we had far-ranging discussions which were great fun. We had 45-60 minutes per discussion, so we could really get into it and trade ideas, building off of each other’s insights.

Education was a major emphasis of the conference, and teachers had their own forums in addition to the regular events.

In the Norland Park group, as in all the other groups, we had lively discussions on many aspects of Sense and Sensibility. JASP 2025

And More Delights

The rest of the time was filled with fun events, including:

  • An opening banquet
  • Multiple fun dance practices with “Mr. Steplively” and a Saturday night Regency Ball, with Regency Games for those who preferred not to dance. (A nice touch was the availability of reasonably priced costumes for those who wanted to rent Regency gowns.)
Ready to promenade from the hotel to the ball. Breckyn Wood, Erna Arnesen, Betty Parker Ellis, Jeanne Talbot, JASP 2025.
Dancing at the Regency Ball, JASP 2025
  • A theatrical evening, where we got to watch an original play connected S&S with Hamlet, and a screening of Sense and Sensibility: The Musical, a delightful take on the novel.
  • An adaptations panel which included music and costumes used in film versions of S&S, and more.
  • Optional tours
  • An emporium selling Jane Austen Books along with other fun items, and a silent auction.
  • A display of early editions of S&S and contemporary books by William Cowper, Sir Walter Scott, James Thomson, William Gilpin, and more.
Inger Brodey, president of the Jane Austen Collaborative (of which JASP is a part), shows her early copies of books by Thomson and Gilpin.

Location, Location

Past JASPs have been held at UNC-Chapel Hill. This year about 150 participants met in New Bern, a historic town near the coast in North Carolina. Waterside views were lovely, and we got to tour the beautiful Tryon Palace and its extensive grounds. Our sessions were held at the North Carolina History Museum nearby.

Next summer, JASP is moving to Seton Hill University in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. The topic will be Pride, Prejudice, and the Pursuit of Happiness. I’m hooked on this great program, and I hope to see some of you there!

(Note: All photos ©Brenda S. Cox, 2025, please ask permission before using.)

Tryon Palace, first permanent capitol of North Carolina, also Governor Tryon’s home, completed in 1770. Reconstructed and reopened in 1959. Well worth a visit! JASP 2025
Touring the Tryon Palace was like touring an aristocratic home of Austen’s day, with period-appropriate furnishings, all the way down to the kitchen, where a real chicken was roasting in the fireplace. JASP 2025

Brenda S. Cox is the author of Fashionable Goodness: Christianity in Jane Austen’s England. She also blogs at Faith, Science, Joy, and Jane Austen.

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St George’s, Hanover Square and Mansfield Park

Posted in Anglican Church, Churches of the Austen family, Georgian London, Jane Austen's religion, Jane Austen's World, Mansfield Park, Regency London, Sense and Sensibility, tagged , , , , on February 24, 2025| 2 Comments »

By Brenda S. Cox

“. . . perhaps you would not mind passing through London, and seeing the inside of St. George’s, Hanover Square. Only keep your cousin Edmund from me at such a time: I should not like to be tempted.”—Mary Crawford, Mansfield Park, chapter 43

Mansfield Park includes much more discussion of the church than any other Austen novel. Not surprisingly, it also names more real churches than the other novels do.

In an earlier post we explored the Garrison Chapel, where Fanny Price and her family worship in Portsmouth. Henry Crawford attends with them on his visit. Perhaps this symbolizes his attempts to reform himself and become worthy of Fanny; attempts that ultimately fail.

Remains of the Garrison Chapel in Portsmouth where the Prices and Henry Crawford worshiped.

Henry’s sister Mary names another real church in a letter to Fanny. She wants Fanny to let her and Henry take Fanny back to Mansfield from Portsmouth, where Fanny has been staying with her family. Fanny is unhappy and unhealthy, but will not commit the impropriety of going back to Mansfield Park before her uncle sends for her. Mary wants to take Fanny to see Henry’s estate and then pass through London on the way to Mansfield.

She suggests visiting St. George’s, Hanover Square. This was a popular church for weddings among the upper classes of London. Mary hopes Fanny will marry Henry there. At the same time, Mary says it might tempt her to marry Edmund. She doesn’t want to marry a clergyman, or a second son who will not inherit an estate, but she is attracted to Edmund.

St. George’s Hanover Square exterior. According to the church website, “The classical front with six great Corinthian columns supporting a pediment represented a new trend in English Church design.”

St. George’s, Hanover Square Today

During a recent visit to London, I had the privilege of worshiping at St. George’s, Hanover Square on a Sunday morning. The service was a Sung Eucharist, a Communion service in traditional language, with beautiful singing from the choir and impressive organ music. During the service, the congregation renewed their baptismal vows.

St. George’s Hanover Square interior. The painting of the Last Supper over the altar, and the surrounding carvings, were installed in 1724. The seven silver hanging lights in the church represent the seven lamps of fire burning before God’s throne, according to the book of Revelation in the Bible.

The church also offers brief midday services from the Book of Common Prayer on weekdays and several other Communion services during the week. Weekday “Morning Calm” services are held during termtime, as “a short period of reflection, contemplation, and relaxation before the challenges of the day begin.”

Nowadays the area around Hanover Square is mostly offices and businesses. I was told that most people in the current congregation live farther away, since few people live close to the church now.

The signboard for St. George’s Hanover Square lists services, extensive opening hours, and rules such as no drugs in the church and no sleeping on pews.

Wealthy Mayfair

Hanover Square is in Mayfair. In Austen’s England, many wealthy people had large houses in Mayfair or surrounding areas. In Sense and Sensibility, the Palmers live in Hanover Square, while the Middletons, Mrs. Ferrars, and Willoughby live nearby in Mayfair. Mrs. Jennings and John and Fanny Dashwood live in Marylebone, an area just north of Mayfair. It developed when Mayfair could no longer accommodate all those who wanted fashionable, elegant housing. (Source: The Annotated Sense and Sensibility, David Shapard.)

St. George’s is the parish church of Mayfair, where the wealthy worshiped. In 1711, Parliament had passed an Act for the building of fifty new churches in and around London. The wealthy of Mayfair petitioned for a church, which was completed in 1725. The patron saint of the church is St. George, a Christian martyr of the third century who is also the patron saint of England.

Rectors of St. George’s Hanover Square during Austen’s time and thereafter. Some held other influential church positions as well.

The parish was large, with a vestry of 101 vestrymen. These included 7 dukes, 14 earls, 7 barons, and 26 other titled people. A vestry, led by the church’s rector and churchwardens, decides matters relating to the church and the secular parish. (Mr. Knightley, Mr. Weston, Mr. Cole, and Mr. Cox are apparently on the vestry for their parish, as they are “busy over parish business” in Emma.) The St. George’s, Hanover Square vestry dealt with local issues including street lighting, refuse disposal, nightwatchmen, and a workhouse for the poor.

St. George’s Hanover Square eagle lectern. Many churches of Austen’s time had lecterns similar to this, where the Bible was read to the congregation. (The eagle symbolized the Word of God because supposedly it could fly directly into the sun without closing its eyes, so it was like the Bible, leading people to God with eyes open. Eagles’ wings also symbolized carrying the gospel to the ends of the earth.)
Pulpit of St. George’s, Hanover Square

Rich and Poor

While the wealthy owned mansions in the area, most spent only the winter in London, passing the rest of the year on their country estates. The back alleys behind the mansions teemed with poverty and misery year-round. In the early 1800s, the Evangelical movement began to awaken the church to the needs of the poor. St. George’s established a parish school for poor children in 1804, supported by public subscriptions. Later in the century, the church initiated and supported extensive projects to help the working classes of the area.

But the wealthy ran the church in Austen’s time. Around the gallery (balcony) are listed the churchwardens, year by year. Anglican churches generally have two elected churchwardens, responsible for financial accounts, movable property of the church, keeping order, and other administrative responsibilities. The churchwardens listed on St. George’s galleries for the 1700s and early 1800s sound impressive: Viscounts, Earls, Lords, Sirs, Honorables, and Esquires.

St. George’s Hanover Square balcony listing early churchwardens. Many were titled men.

Music

The composer George Friderick Handel lived about a four minute walk from the church. He helped choose the organ and organist for the new church. He had a pew there and worshiped at St. George’s until he died. He wrote the Messiah in his house nearby on Brook Street, which is now a museum.

St. George’s Hanover Square organ pipes; a new organ was installed in 1972. The original organ had 1514 pipes and three manuals (keyboards for the hands). It cost £500 in 1725.

Weddings

Since it was at the heart of the wealthy district, St. George’s, Hanover Square was the popular place for weddings of the wealthy and influential. In 1816, the church hosted 1,063 weddings! Famous people including Percy Bysshe Shelley, Benjamin Disraeli, George Eliot (Mary Lewes), and Theodore Roosevelt were married at St. George’s. Mary Crawford was likely staying near there with her wealthy London friends, and she may have attended church there. So it was the first place she thought of for her own and her brother’s weddings. It is still a popular venue for weddings, though not as much so as in Austen’s time.

On Thursday, we’ll look at the other two real churches mentioned in Mansfield Park, the two most famous churches in England. Do you know which ones they are? We’ll also consider which London church Lydia and Wickham married in!

All images above ©Brenda S. Cox, 2025.

Churches mentioned by name in Jane Austen’s novels and letters

Garrison Chapel

St. Swithin’s, Walcot and other churches in Northanger Abbey

London Churches in Austen’s Novels

St. George’s, Hanover Square

St. Paul’s, Covent Garden: Actors’ Church

Austen Family Churches

Steventon

Chawton

Deane

Hamstall Ridware and Austen’s First Cousin, Edward Cooper

Adlestrop and the Leigh Family

Stoneleigh Abbey Chapel and Mansfield Park

Great Bookham and Austen’s Godfather, Rev. Samuel Cooke

Ashe and the Lefroy Family

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A Summer Party for Sense and Sensibility, Hosted by Author Sarah Emsley

Posted in Jane Austen's World, Sense and Sensibility, Sense and Sensibility Author Tour, tagged , on August 5, 2024| 8 Comments »

Inquiring readers,

Earlier this year, I met author Sarah Emsley online, after she made an observation about something I’d written on Jane Austen’s World blog: she then revealed that she visited this site often. I was thrilled, and during our ensuing online discussions I agreed to write an article for her “Summer Party for Sense and Sensibility.” My article, published August 2nd, is entitled “Mrs. Dashwood’s Journey of Growth in Sense and Sensibility.”

Knowing that so much has been researched, discussed and written about Austen’s first published novel, I honed in on one of her lesser characters, Mrs. Dashwood, who is well known by Austen’s readers. She plays a pivotal role, but remains largely a side character to her two eldest daughters, She is not written as a one-dimensional character. Nevertheless, she practically disappears from the novel’s plot in the last third of the novel, until events necessitate her return to help move the plot to its conclusion.

Image copyright Sarah Emsley

A Summer Party for Sense an Sensibility can be found at this link. Guest authors include: Maggie Arnold, Finola Austin, Elaine Bander, Deb Barnum, Sandra Barry, Cheryl Bell, Matthew Berry, Diana Birchall, L. Bao Bui, Kathy Cawsey, Lori Mulligan Davis, Lizzie Dunford, Susan Allen Ford, Paul Gordon, Heidi L.M. Jacobs, Natalie Jenner, Hazel Jones, George Justice, Theresa Kenney, Deborah Knuth Klenck, Shawna Lemay, Emily Midorikawa, Jessica Richard, S.K. Rizzolo, Peter Sabor, Vic Sanborn, Marilyn Smulders, Jacqueline Stevens, Emma Claire Sweeney, Joyce Tarpley, Janet Todd, and Deborah Yaffe, along with two teenagers, Gail and Ria, who are reading S&S for the first time.

New contributions are published every Friday and Tuesday, and will continue through the end of summer. Sarah refreshes the page (see the above link) with each new article, and encourages people to leave comments for the author.

The other series she’s featured in past years can be found on her site. They are:

About Sarah Emsley 

Screenshot from Ms.Elmsley’s page on Amazon.com

Sarah’s request: Please share the tour with others. Better yet, she’d love for you to write comments to the various contributors. Enjoy!

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Jane Austen-Themed Valentines

Posted in 19th Century England, Jane Austen Novels, Jane Austen TV adaptation, Jane Austen videos, Jane Austen's World, Pride & Prejudice 1995, Regency World, Romantic London, Sense and Sensibility, Valentine's Day on February 14, 2023| 17 Comments »

Happy Valentine’s Day, JAW friends! Are you sending cards this year or planning something special? I found it interesting to read about Valentine’s Day during the Regency Era and found several histories of the holiday online. A short overview from The Jane Austen Centre proved intriguing.

As I thought about the kinds of Valentine’s Day cards and letters Jane Austen’s characters might have sent to one another, I had a few creative ideas. The following is the fruit of an hour spent laughing over what some of Austen’s most famous (and silly) characters might say if they sent out Valentine’s Day cards.

Enjoy!

True Romantics

And finally, a few Jane Austen-themed Valentine’s Day graphics that you might like to share with a loved one! After all, she did write some of the most romantic lines in the English language!

A very Happy Valentine’s Day to you, from all of us here at Jane Austen’s World! May your day be filled with love, laughter, friends, sweet treats, and good books. Feel free to share this post with your friends and loved ones!

RACHEL DODGE teaches college English classes, gives talks at libraries, teas, and book clubs, and writes for Jane Austen’s World blog. She is the bestselling author of The Little Women Devotional, The Anne of Green Gables Devotional and Praying with Jane: 31 Days Through the Prayers of Jane Austen. Now Available: The Secret Garden Devotional! You can visit Rachel online at www.RachelDodge.com.

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