“Marianne: A Sense and Sensibility Sequel” by Alice McVeigh

Marianne: A Sense and Sensibility Sequel

Alice McVeigh
Warleigh Hall Press (2025)
ISBN: 978-1738546121
Reviewed by Joan Kirschner for Reader Views (09/2025)

Sense and Sensibility is Jane Austen’s classic novel of upper-class social behavior, set in late 18th-century England. It centers around the Dashwood family, particularly two of the three Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne. Elinor is the oldest and the one with “sense,” meaning she is a cool-headed type who looks at life from a down-to-earth, intellectual perspective. Middle sister Marianne is the one with “sensibility,” which we might currently rephrase as sensitivity – Marianne views life through an emotional lens. The third sister, Margaret, plays a minor role.

Alice McVeigh’s Marianne: A Sense and Sensibility Sequel shifts the emphasis to Marianne and Margaret. Elinor is referenced, but she remains in the background. Marianne was sixteen when readers first encountered her in Austen’s book, but is now twenty. She is now Mrs. Brandon, the widow of Colonel Brandon. Brandon was her much-older, much-beloved husband, whom she still grieves. Margaret is now sixteen, impulsive, and perhaps a bit flighty.  She hopes to be an author and has begun writing a novel featuring a romantic heroine who falls in love with a handsome highwayman.

The beautiful and vivacious Marianne is the object of the affections of several men, all of whom have had previous entanglements. One is Willoughby, with whom she had previously fallen in love, but had let her down while in a scandalous situation. Marianne knows Willoughby is trouble, but she is still attracted to him. The second is Rushworth, a Member of Parliament, who had a disappointing previous marriage. The third is Crawford, who also has some dishonorable behavior in his past. Marianne will weigh her feelings towards these suitors throughout the story, and readers will be anxious to know what she decides.

The Dashwood family is horrified when Margaret is accused of a crime, arrested, and taken into custody. As a young woman of the upper classes, she is not thrown into a common jail but is allowed to live in confinement in special quarters, where she befriends and becomes a mentor to Bridget, a daughter of her jailer, but her circumstances are far different from the life she is used to. The family despairs over her situation. Much of the action centers around how the Dashwoods will manage her defense, who they will engage to represent them, and who will come to their assistance. The plot hinges on those circumstances.

Both Marianne and Margaret are depicted as keeping journals that follow their daily activities, thoughts, and feelings. The author cleverly creates journal excerpts to add depth to her characters as they reflect on their circumstances. While this is not an epistolary novel per se, the journal entries are a clever device that indirectly advances the action.

Fans of Jane Austen and regency romances in general will enjoy reading this further chapter in the lives of the two younger Dashwood sisters. Those who are not Austen buffs, or who have not read Sense and Sensibility recently, may have some difficulty at first sorting through Marianne’s friendships and the connections between them and her relationships with her three admirers, but staying with the book is most definitely worthwhile. The author has successfully built upon Austen’s classic novel in a way that honors it by being both logically organized and emotionally satisfying, much like the contrast between Elinor and Marianne as they were originally presented. This reviewer strongly recommends this fun and engaging novel.

As a special bonus, the book’s eye-catching cover features a charming painting that represents a young woman much like McVeigh’s descriptions of Marianne’s richly shaded hair, lively eyes, and rosy complexion in Marianne: A Sense and Sensibility Sequel. A credit informs the reader that it is a portrait of Élizabeth Vigée Le Brun, Countess Golovina, used with the courtesy of the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham. Great choice, and one that is sure to entice book lovers.