Sense and Sensibility

When their father dies and the estate passes to their half-brother, the Dashwood sisters and their mother are politely evicted into genteel poverty. Elinor, the elder, feels everything and shows almost nothing. Marianne, the younger, believes concealing emotion is a kind of lying. Each falls in love, each is failed in different ways by men and by the money-minded society around them, and each has something to learn from the other's way of surviving it.

Austen's first published novel is sharper-clawed than its reputation. Beneath the romance runs a cold-eyed audit of what happens to women when the wealth goes elsewhere. The comic monsters (the Steele sisters, the magnificently awful Fanny Dashwood) are among her best, and the sisters' bond gives the book its warm center.

At roughly 120,500 words, Sense and Sensibility runs about 13½ hours at 1x narration speed. That figure is an estimate based on a typical narration pace. The exact length depends on the voice and the playback speed you choose.

Sense and Sensibility is in the public domain, so the complete text is free on Project Gutenberg and LoudReader has the entire Project Gutenberg catalog built in. To listen:

1. Download LoudReader for Mac or iPhone (free, no account).
2. Search for “Sense and Sensibility” in the built-in catalog and add it to your library.
3. Press play. A natural offline voice reads the book while each word highlights on screen, and your place is saved between sessions.

LoudReader reads with natural offline voices, so the whole book works on a plane or underground. It is fully on-device and private, your library never leaves your device. Listening is unlimited on the free tier.