Emma insults Miss Bates. But she outdoes herself in Sense and Sensibility, in which she deflates her characters’ high expectations by abruptly canceling the picnic.
The “party of pleasure,” Austen’s euphemism for a picnic, was intended at Whitwell, twelve miles from the Dashwood’s home at Barton Cottage. Carriages were arranged, and unspecified “cold provisions” were prepared. (Austen never divulges picnic eatables.)
At the last moment, pleasure is denied when their host Colonel Brandon reneges his invitation, pleading business in London. The result, Austen wryly explains, defies expectation: the Dashwood family’s expectations plummet, “Their intended excursion to Whitwell turned out very different from what Elinor had expected. She was prepared to be wet, fatigued, and frightened, but the event was still more unfortunate, for they did not go at all.”
Quietly Willoughby says, “Some people cannot bear a party of pleasure. Brandon is one of them. He was afraid of catching a cold, I dare say, and invented this trick for getting out of it. I would lay fifty guineas the letter was of his own writing.” Marianne Dashwood replies affirmatively, “I have no doubt of it.”
Featured Image: Ang Lee’s picnic that never occurs in Austen’s text. See Sense and Sensibility (1995). The screenplay by Emma Thompson is based on Jane Austen’s novel (1811). For discussion, see Picniconfilm,org.
See The novel was originally published as being written by “A Lady”; Jane Austen. Sense and Sensibility. London: Thomas Egerton, 1811