Sense and Sensibility

Anastasia Retyunina
2 min readMar 1, 2022

This semester I started reading a new book! Yes! It’s Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility. I finally made it. Though I was preparing myself it would be difficult to digest, I still didn’t think it would be so different from the books I’ve read before. The language and syntax are so interesting but they make the reading process much slower…I hope I’ll get used to it and start to understand more.

I don’t think that translating each work will help me somehow, but there are still some words that are repeated in the first chapters that I’ve read.

disposition — the type of character someone has (характер, нрав)

propriety — socially acceptable behavior (правила приличия)

exert — to use something such as authority, power, influence, etc in order to make something happen (проявлять власть, оказывать влияние)

  • exert yourself — to use a lot of physical or mental energy to do something (напрягаться)

entreaty — an earnest or humble request (мольба, просьба)

annuity — a fixed sum of money paid to someone each year, typically for the rest of their life (как пенсия, выплата)

penetration — If someone penetrates a place or a group, they succeed in moving into or joining it (проникать, вклиниваться)

trifling — unimportant or trivial (незначительный)

So far I’ve learned that this story is about the family of Dashwood, and the main focus now is on Marianne Dashwood. Here is her quote that caught my attention:

‘ The more I know of the world, the more am I convinced that I shall never see a man whom I can really love. I require so much! ’

I’m looking forward to reading more and learning more about other characters, such as her mother, sister and her “boyfriend” and others. :)

If we judge by the date of the release it’s the beginning of the 19th century, that leads us to the conclusion about main topics and how things are done there.

Thank you!

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