Sense and Sensibility book club

Sense and Sensibility is the first Jane Austen book I read. Emma Thompson and Hugh Grant were going to star in a brand new movie and all my friends were excited by it. I read the story and that got me started on slowly reading through the different Jane Austen books and talking with my friends. Fast forward, and I was sitting there planning out our high school literature, and I decided freshman year was the perfect time for our Sense and Sensibility book club, and it was our last book and a movie night for that year.

(there are affiliate links in here)

Sense and Sensibility book

Sense and Sensibility follows the Dashwood sisters after their father has died and they have to move into a smaller home because the estate has been willed to their elder half brother. The elder sister, Elinor, believes in being restrained and quiet, while her younger sister, Marianne, is a Romantic. We follow their lives as they struggle to fit into a new home.

Of course, being a Jane Austen book, through the course of events both of the sisters marry.

Sense and Sensibility book club

After reading the book, and thinking about our history course this year, I realized it would have made so much more sense to wait and read this book this year as we just covered the Romantics and the Age of Enlightenment. Comparing the two sisters and how they embody those beliefs. 

Sadly, that was not the case.

Instead, we worked our way through the Seven Sisters Sense and Sensibility Literary Guide and talked through the ideas in there.

If you want a full year of British Lit, then you could also go for that option.

But here are some ideas to talk through:

• Sense and Sensibility had different meanings when Jane Austen wrote, how do the sisters live out these two words?
• What are the ideals of Romantics, and how does Marianne live those ideals?
• What are the ideals of the Enlightenment and how does Elinor live those ideals?

Sense and Sensibility snacks

There are several different Sense and Sensibility movies you can watch. If you’re debating there was a recent BBC miniseries adaptation, that is overall good, but you will want to fast forward through the credits because it shows the indiscretion that Willoughby engages in. Aside from that, we enjoyed it a few years ago.

Of course, there is the awesome 90s Sense and Sensibility, which we chose to watch. There are a few, rather bad, modern-day adaptations, this book doesn’t adapt as well as other books.

Now, let’s talk about the snacks we ate for our Sense and Sensibility movie night.

• cucumber sandwiches- Princess loves these, so she always wants them for a classic British novel
• cheese and crackers- fairly self-explanatory, I picked up some different cheeses to try and some crackers we like
• lemon curd cakes- I picked up some of these pre-made because they looked delicious, and I was right
• carriages- people are always riding carriages, and so I picked up some fudge stripes for carriage wheels
• scones- because it also goes with the tea theme, you can follow this scone recipe
• pianoforte- I’m particularly proud of this one. They are wafers with mini-Hershey candy bars
• hunting hounds- Scotty dog shortbread cookies
• Champagne- Gingerale or Pineapple soda
• Port- root beer
• wine- grape soda

Not super a lot of snacks, but we thoroughly enjoyed them all.

More 9th grade ideas for you

• Raphael art history lesson
• Time Machine book club
• Titian art history lesson
• Ready Player One book club
• King Henry VIII’s wives history lesson

Photo by Nico Jacobs on Unsplash

Photo by John Tecuceanu on Unsplash