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• Possible essay topics for Sense and Sensibility. Spoiler Alert.
• Map of England PDF with brief notes.
• Family Tree PDFs (I adapted these from the genealogy found on Pemberly.com. Those include spoilers and I tried to clarify relationships and minimize spoilers on my revisions.)
• Dashwoods and Ferrars  Family Trees PDF
• Brandons, Middletons and Steels, etc. Family Trees PDF
• Character Log PDF. Most online character logs inlclude spoilers about the text and give away who ends up with whom. I copied this list of characters from Wikipedia, but I deleted all the spoilers. You're welcome to make your own log if you want to create one based on the family trees. 

Sense and Sensibility has three volumes and was orignally published in three separate texts. If you’ve already started reading it, you’ll want to re-read it. It’s meaty and worth the re-read. I've re-read this text more than a dozen times and I enjoy it each time. If you’re listening to the audio, you’ll want to pair that with the text. Read and listen together. There is a free audio version on itunes. If you choose to download it, please read the book as well. You will not be able to write strong essays and pass the quizzes without doing the reading part.

Introductory Notes

• Here is a doc of my general notes PDF about reading this book successfully. (I will pass this out in class when we begin the book. The notes about watching the movie in class and doing the study questions only apply to 110A.) I've taught Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice with many groups of students, ranging in skill from the ESL reader and struggling academic writer to the English major. My students have been high school teens to grandparents; they have come for all parts of the world with all kinds of backgrounds and values. And, they’ve all been able to read and enjoy these books. Give it a chance.
• I have the lessons structure this way and give you the advice I do because this is how students will be most successful and get the most enjoyment out of the book. I want you to learn, but I also want you to enjoy this text. It's worth your attention and will reward your efforts. Jane Austen was not interested in laziness and ignorance and her books don’t reward it.
• Do NOT read the introduction—it contains spoilers and will be confusing. You can come back to it after you've finished the whole text if you want, to see what that writer had to say about the themes and ideas present in the novel, but it's not necessary.
• Chapters are in roman numbers on the left top and cardinals are on the right.  (Roman Numeral conversions are in a chart on this web site if you want to practice.) This is the version of the text we are using: Sense and Sensibility, ISBN: 978-0141439662.
• If you use Sparknotes/Cliffnotes/Bookrags or other web sites offering summaries/analysis, please do so AFTER you've read the text. I think knowing what these web sites have to say will influence your ability to think critically about the text in negative ways and the many nuances involved in the social situations and relationships. You can understand the text if you put the effort into it. The book will reward your patience. I also know what these sites have to say; I've been there too--if you can find it on the web, so can I. But, truly, what these sites have to say is not that interesting. I'd rather hear what you think, not what some English major dropout thinks who makes his living writing commentary for cheat sites.
• Look up words and use the notes on pp. 398-409 to find out about things you don't understand. Here is the link to the Notes from Pemberly.com if you want more detail about the finer points in the text. Don't worry about the 'textual variants' section of the book we have; it's not important for our purposes, though if you're interested you're free to read it.
• Be careful as you pace the book. If you read too fast you'll not remember anything that happens; if you read too slow, you'll get stuck at the word-level and lose the flow and meaning of the text. If you're struggling with the reading, buzz through the chapters first for overall sense of plot and then re-read more slowly to pick up the finer detail. Yes, I said re-read. Smart students, successful students, they re-read. This is one of the things that helps them be successful.
  
• When you read the book, I suggest breaking it up into the same sections I have it broken into for study questions (scroll down for details).
• Jane Austen said she did not write for dull elves, so let's not disappoint her.
  

• SQs pdf for Volume 1.1, Ch. 1 – 5, pp. 5-29
• SQs pdf for Volume 1.2, Ch. 6 – 11, pp. 30-58 
• SQs pdf for Volume 1.3, Ch. 12 – 18, pp 59-98 
• SQs pdf for Volume 1.4, Ch. 19 – 22, pp 99-129 
• SQs pdf for Volume II, pp 133 – 238
• SQs pdf for Volume III, pp 241 – 353
• All of the above study questions in one printable document

Helpful Jane Austen & Regency Era Information

Jane Austen lived and wrote during a period of time in England generally called the Regency Era. She was born on December 16, 1975 in Steventon, Hampshire and died at the age of 41. She published some novels while she was alive, but made almost no money from her writing. Her other completed novels were published after her death. There are pieces of unfinished work, things she wrote as a youth and a small collection of letters that are all part of the Jane Austen collection today. Many scholars make their professional work researching and writing about Jane Austen and her marvelous texts.

For all things Jane Austen online, visit:

• The Republic of Pemberly
• The Jane Austen Society of Australia
• The Jane Austen Centre

Other Useful Goodies:

• I'm finding this resource about the customs and culture of the regency period so helpful.
• Rank demographics and incomes of the British Realm in 1814
• Rank and Address of the "peerage" in Regency England (scroll down for the list of heirarchies; marriage and divorce laws are toward the bottom.)
• Understanding the Entail
• The Wikipedia site for "Landed Gentry" is pretty good
  
• This discussion from http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/austen-l.html#X8 adds to our information on the money issue: The widowed Mrs. Dashwood and her daughters are not necessarily impoverished by an entail in Sense and Sensibility. The money that Mr. Henry Dashwood's first wife had brought into the marriage was reserved by marriage settlements for her own offspring (namely John Dashwood), and could not be given to Mr. Henry Dashwood's daughters by his second wife. And the late uncle of Mr. Henry Dashwood chose to put stipulations in his will which effectively held his estate in trust for John Dashwood's son Harry (see the Family Trees PDF).
• The first of these legal devices is not an entail, and the second does not have to be. And in fact, marriage settlements are actually designed to protect women (as opposed to an entail, which keeps wealth away from women), since these settlements ensure that the wife's money will revert to her or her children, and prevent the husband from misappropriating the money for other purposes (as he would otherwise be entitled to do).
• I couldn't find an article specifically talking about the use of bricks to warm carraiges, but here is an interesting peice about various forms of warmers used over the years.
• Excellent picture of letter written across and folded.  And another. 
• Regency games and amusements. Card games. 
• British reality TV: Regency House Party.
• And of course, Jane Austen Fight Club
  

• Meal times (and why they were this way) in the Regency era:
• Breakfast 10AM (leisurely), 9AM (less leisurely), 8AM (working people)
• Luncheon Midday
• Dinner 3-5PM
• Supper 10-11PM
• General information about the culture of Jane Austen's world
• More links about the culture and lifestyle of the regency era
• Links about costuming and dress
• This is a fun choose your adventure site.