"Young women who have no economic or political power must attend to the serious business of contriving material security". Jane Austen`s sardonic humour lays bare the stratagems, the hypocrisy and the poignancy inherent in the struggle of two very different sisters to achieve respectability. "Sense and Sensibility" is a delightful comedy of manners in which the sisters Elinor and Marianne represent these two qualities. Elinor`s character is one of Augustan detachment, while Marianne, a fervent disciple of the Romantic Age, learns to curb her passionate nature in the interests of survival. This book, the first of Austen`s novels to be published, remains as fresh a cautionary tale today as it every was.