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Tutor EmilyGL 's Column

Sense and Sensibility

Apr 7, 2024

The book cover in this picture is of two sisters in Jane Austen's novel, Sense and Sensibility.

In this book, the two sisters have different personalities. The young women are forced to leave their home with their mother and move to a different part of the country. They meet young men and the sisters react and behave in quite different ways. They go from the world of the country to the town and discover that some people marry only for money and some do not.

Sense means good judgment and sensibility means feeling emotions strongly and being sensitive to things. The older sister, Elinor, has a lot of sense, but does she have enough sensibility? The younger sister, Marianne, has a lot of sensibility, but she develops more sense during the story.

Do not worry if you do not like love stories - this is also about society in Britain in the 1800s, about money and greedy relatives, and about what women were able to do at the time.

In this lesson, I am using the Penguin graded reader which has the story specially adapted to help learners of English. It is recommended to buy this book online or in a shop.


You can either read the book by yourself and ask me questions about it in the lesson. Or we will read the story aloud in the lesson and talk about it.
After the lesson I will send you feedback and links to further information and places in the book.
This lesson is for adult students, and would suit intermediate students who would like a gentle introduction to the classics, or even advanced level students for fun.
I look forward to reading it with you.
 

 

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