When Elinor Dashwood’s (Emma Thompson) father dies, her family’s finances are crippled. After the Dashwoods move to a cottage in Devonshire, Elinor’s sister Marianne (Kate Winslet) is torn between the handsome John Willoughby (Greg Wise) and the older Colonel Brandon (Alan Rickman). Meanwhile, Elinor’s romantic hopes with Edward Ferrars (Hugh Grant) are hindered due to his prior engagement. Both Elinor and Marianne strive for love while the circumstances in their lives constantly change.

Stick around after the film for a discussion led by Ben Hudson, Assistant Professor of English at Rollins, on the contexts of European Romanticism, the ways in which we might consider Austen’s writing “feminist,” the stakes of the marriage market for Regency women of Austen’s class, the novel’s effort to de-couple fashionability from moral worth, and a short case for Sense and Sensibility as England’s first novel of detection (Move over Sherlock!).