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Sense and Sensibility, published by Jane Austen in 1811, is set in southwest England and concerns two sisters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood. The two sisters are complete opposites, Elinor being the pinnacle of self-control and prudence, whilst Marianne is the epitome of enthusiasm. The two of them would certainly choose different styles of herrenuhren. The daughters of their father Henry’s second wife, Mrs. Dashwood, the sisters are left in reduced circumstances when their father dies and his estate is passed onto John, their half-brother. The sisters must move to a small meager cottage on a distant relative’s land where they experience the trials of love and heartbreak. It is uncertain at the culmination of the novel whether sense and sensibility have merged or whether life and love can never co-exist.

Austen possibly based the two sisters loosely on herself and her elder sister, Cassandra. It is obvious in Sense and Sensibility that Austen intended to vindicate Elinor’s self-restraint, yet she treats the two sisters in a complex manner. Instead of being a straight forward celebration of sensibility and a vindication of sense, the two are ambiguously treated. Austen’s biographer Claire Tomalin argues that there is in the novel a “wobble in its approach”, a result of Austen’s uncertainty when writing as to whether sense or sensibility should triumph.