When their father dies and his estate passes to their half-brother, the Dashwood sisters and their mother find themselves suddenly reduced in fortune and obliged to leave the only home they've known for a modest cottage in the countryside. Elinor, the elder, meets life with quiet reason and self-command; Marianne, all passion and feeling, gives her whole heart to romance and refuses to hide what she feels. As both sisters' affections are drawn toward men of uncertain prospects, Austen's sparkling 1811 debut sets sense against sensibility, and prepares to test each sister's way of loving against the disappointments of the real world.