As Jane Austen drafted Sense and Sensibility in the late 1790s, Britain was experiencing a huge financial crisis. Despite its publication nearly 215 years ago, the novel’s most recent screen adaptation highlights the surprising relatability for a gen Z audience of the heroines’ economic and romantic struggles.
The novel follows sisters Elinor and Marianne Dashwood (played here by Daisy Edgar-Jones and Esmé Creed-Miles) after the death of their father. When their elder half-brother, John Dashwood, inherits their family home, Norland Park in Sussex, they are forced to move to rural Devonshire with a meagre allowance. The novel’s darker exploration of the sisters’ fractured relationship to property, succession and dependence on men are presented with more grit than previous adaptations.
