Here’s what I wrote to Jane Austen about her novel Sense and Sensibility and my new novel Sense and Common Sense:
Dear Jane,
Do you remember your novel about the Dashwood family, Mrs Dashwood and her three daughters, Elinor, Marianne and Margaret?
Your novel came to an end with the marriages of Elinor and Marianne: Elinor to Edward Ferrars, a young man about to commence a vocation as a minister of the church, but without much enthusiasm for it; Marianne to Colonel Brandon, a retired army officer twice her age. Margaret, the youngest of the three, gets little attention until the last page, where it is hinted that she has reached an age ‘highly suitable for dancing.’
And then? Do the lives of these young women have no significance apart from dancing, flirting and marrying? Did they bear any children? Did they and their husbands enjoy lives without care ? In nineteenth century England ? I can hardly believe it. The characters that you presented to the world in Sense and Sensibility must have lived their allotted span of years, with all the accompanying happiness, heartache and sadness that life always brings.
Here is the rest of the story.
Love
John
And so all Jane Austen fans are cordially invited to beg, borrow and download the new e-book Sense and Common Sense, published by BookRix.de and BookRix.com and available from most e-book retailers, including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, i-Tunes and most other stores.
Kind regards
John
Author’s biographical note: John’s first meeting with Jane was at Bishop Wordsworth’s School in Salisbury, England, where for his Advanced Level Eng.Lit. examination he was required to write an essay on ‘Jane Austen’s conception of love as shown in Mansfield Park.’ He passed the examination, went on to study history at Cambridge University, and perhaps he has been a bit in love with Jane ever since…..
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