Goodreads asked Lauren Edmondson:

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Lauren Edmondson Sense and Sensibility has long been my favorite Jane Austen novel; the concept of a modern retelling was floating around in my head for many years before I actually had any idea of what that would, in practice, look like on the page. It seems many readers don’t find Sense as hilarious as Emma or romantic as Pride and Prejudice, but I’ve always been drawn to the novel’s pointed depictions of womanhood. Unlike in Austen’s other works, fathers are mostly absent from Sense, and the Dashwood sisters’ love interests almost entirely disappear from large sections of the novel. This absence of men focuses our gaze on the women characters, but the men’s systems of power still dictate the story, allowing Austen room to explore what it means for women to demonstrate “proper” conduct.

Long fascinated by how women have approached such societal expectations across history, I thought adapting Austen’s framework to a contemporary setting would provide an enlightening contrast and benchmark for how women’s lives have and have not changed.

flag