S&S has more plot and arguably more appealing characters than Mansfield Park, but has a similar tendency to view character and plot developments from a thousand foot view, and also tends to focus a certain amount of attention on “alternate histories” that don’t come to pass, although it’s not as aggressive about it as Mansfield Park. Our hypothetical adaptation of S&S is a miniseries of four to six episodes of one hour+ apiece, on one of the major streaming services, with a hefty budget and a level of stylization similar to the 2020 Emma, although with a different color palette and “vibe.” I am breaking the story out roughly by location, to make these posts a more manageable size.

-We open with the family in mourning for the Dashwood uncle, here named William. I imagine them visiting a family cemetery on Norland property, sad in a quiet way, with Henry Dashwood obviously working hard to calm and comfort his wife Mrs. Dashwood. It’s a beautiful April day, flowers in bloom, but with a kind of hazy, far-off feeling. Henry laments that he’s inherited the estate, but because it’s entailed on his son, he can’t provide for his wife and daughters by selling off any part of Norland’s valuable woods. Marianne argues against selling or cutting down any of Norland’s trees. Mrs. Dashwood says that Henry is liable to live as long as his uncle, addressing her husband by first name, because we need to know it and she is believable as the kind of woman who would break protocol in that matter. She adds that there’s plenty of time to save money out of his annual income. Henry smiles and nods, and John Dashwood chimes in to assure him that he will look after his sisters and stepmother, if anything happens to his father.

-Cut to William Dashwood’s tombstone, with dates of birth and death, and then pan sideways with a dramatic change of weather, to Henry’s tombstone, with a death date roughly eleven months later. It is a wet, gray, nasty March as the women leave the gravesite, dressed once again in mourning clothes. Marianne and her mother are uncontrollably and dramatically sad, Elinor is obviously just as affected but trying to remind them that the deceased would not want to see them so unhappy. Margaret’s at the numb/bewildered/shock stage. John Dashwood makes reassuring noises and mentions that his father, on his deathbed, commended the ladies to his care.

Back at the house, they find that John’s wife Fanny Dashwood has arrived with little Harry. She’s not openly rude, but she makes it clear that she considers the Dashwoods guests. Marianne and Mrs. Dashwood vent to Elinor, who is sympathetic but points out that it *is* Fanny Dashwood’s home now, and being rude to her is just going to make things worse at this difficult time. Mrs. Dashwood tries to comfort herself with the reflection that John will look after them: “He is not an ill-disposed young man.” “Unless to be rather cold hearted and rather selfish is to be ill-disposed,” Marianne retorts. “He conducts himself with propriety in the discharge of his ordinary duties which has made him, in general well-respected,” Elinor says, then we switch to Elinor’s narration: “Had he married a more amiable woman, he might have been made still more respectable than he was:—he might even have been made amiable himself; for he was very young when he married, and very fond of his wife. But Mrs. John Dashwood was a strong caricature of himself;—more narrow-minded and selfish.”

-During this narration we transition to Fanny Dashwood prowling around Norland assessing the rooms and furniture. John mentions his intentions to give his stepmother and his sisters a thousand pounds a piece, and we get the famous debate between the two. IIRC, 1995 and/or 2008 turn this into a kind of montage with Fanny wearing down her husband’s resolve over time, and I see no reason not to do it again; it is very consistent with how such men and women act in real life. Three stipulations however:

–we do our best to find new and different “bits of business” for John and Fanny to carry out, culminating with her finally convincing him during a visit to the family graveyard, just to twist the knife.

–we see the passage of time during the montage, with maybe Fanny spotting and picking an early flower and putting it in her husband’s buttonhole, or them commenting on the changes in the weather in passing.

–The last, and possibly all, of the “you’re robbing our poor Harry” comments are immediately followed by her scolding Harry about something relatively trivial. As I’ve said elsewhere, we need to feel kind of sorry for Harry because he has these ice-buckets as parents.

-Shortly after this, we get a family dinner where John offers to help them find a house and move into it, and assures them that he will help keep them fed with fish and game from Norland. The ladies are politely disappointed, especially Mrs. Dashwood. Fanny announces that she’s invited her brother Edward Ferrars to visit, and the Dashwood ladies (and any viewer new to the story) are politely wary. Possibly there’s a private conversation afterwards among the Dashwood ladies where Marianne vents about how cold and heartless any brother of Fanny would be. “How many people in London have met John, and thought the same of his sisters?” Elinor asks, a bit impishly.

-It is late afternoon. Fanny is bustling around ordering changes to the parlour while the Dashwood ladies follow their hobbies: Marianne is playing the pianoforte, Elinor is sketching, Margaret (who in this version is the seamstress of the family) is trimming some bonnets. Mr. Edward Ferrars is announced by the butler. The music gets ominous, we get closeups of the Dashwood sisters looking worried. Viewers who don’t know the story should be a little concerned. Viewers who do know the story should be somewhat amused. And then we cut to the anticlimax of a conservatively dressed, rather timid young man walking into the room, and nervously offers his condolences to Mrs. Dashwood and her daughters before greeting his sister, who in turn insists on full introductions. (This may be a breach of protocol somehow on Edward’s part, but I feel like it is consistent with his fundamentally kind heart and awkward manners.)

–The sequence of events is similar to 1995’s treatment of Edward’s arrival, but the emphasis should be different. The directing in 1995 flattens out any suspense about whether Fanny’s brother will be as awful as herself, then-trendy star Hugh Grant makes sure we know this character is a Romantic Lead, and the movie instead focuses on gags about Fanny and her mother-in-law as dueling hostesses, and Margaret rebelliously hiding. This imaginary adaption should instead feel like an almost gothic buildup with a comical punchline.

–Fanny then introduces the other ladies from oldest to youngest. Edward’s impressed by Elinor’s sketch, recognizing the subject as a part of the grounds he saw coming up the drive. He asks whether Marianne was the one he heard playing just now. She’s still a bit ruffled, but says yes. He says he doesn’t know much about music but he enjoyed what she was playing. He comes across as well-meaning but awkward in these exchanges. When Margaret asks Edward’s opinion of her bonnet, he says that he is no judge of such things. When she asks why gentlemen always say that, he makes a weak joke: in his experience, the sort of gentleman who starts by criticizing ladies’ clothes, ends by criticizing the ladies themselves. Dead silence, but Elinor smiles a little. Fanny breaks the ice by taking him off to show him his room. “Well, at least he isn’t as cold as his sister,” Mrs. Dashwood says. “No, he’s just dull,” Marianne says. “He’s kind,” Elinor says simply.

-The young ladies invite him to go riding with them the next day, and he turns out to be a pretty good horseman. Margaret challenges Marianne to a race, then takes off before Marianne can accept. “Should we follow them?” Edward wonders. “Let them enjoy themselves,” Elinor says. “We won’t be able to keep the horses when we leave Norland.” They talk a little more about the Dashwoods’ situation. Possibly, Elinor gives a brief history of her family settling with and befriending the uncle, and him leaving the estate to Henry Dashwood, but entailing it to Henry’s son John Dashwood and John’s son Harry, complete with snark about how Harry won his great-uncle’s heart. “Oh, he’s not a bad little fellow,” Edward said. “It wasn’t his idea to shut you out of the succession.” “But what will he grow into, with a mother like that?” Elinor asks. Edward becomes moody and quiet. Is he thinking of his own mother? Or what a bad mother his fiancee Lucy would be? I leave that up to the actor and director to decide.

-That evening, Mrs. Dashwood asks him to read to them, and Marianne hands him a volume of Cowper. Do not have him read “The Castaway” (this is the poem Marianne scolds him for reading badly in the 1995 version). I recommend instead “On Human Frailty” (#13 on this site). He shouldn’t be actively bad at it: good diction, no stammering, a kind of dignified simplicity and maybe a touch of sadness, although in general he should come off as rather sad. He isn’t DRAMATIC, however, and we see Margaret and Marianne exchange bored glances, maybe roll their eyes. Meanwhile, Elinor sits there sewing, watching him intently.

-cut to the famous conversation from the book where Marianne nitpicks Edward’s tastes to Elinor and tries to find out if her sister is in love with him.

-A daytime vignette where Fanny Dashwood asks her mother-in-law whether they’ve managed to find a house in the neighborhood. Reference to it being nearly the end of summer, and good weather for moving. The two women pause at a large window and they and we can see Edward and Elinor outside. “We haven’t found anything suitable so far, so we are looking further afield,” Mrs. Dashwood replies. “Thanks to your kind hospitality, there’s no need to hurry.” She pointedly watches the young couple outside. We can’t hear what they’re talking about, but this is one of those moments where they seem pretty friendly and then abruptly Edward pokers up and becomes sad and withdrawn. Fanny scowls, and mentions that her mother is coming to stay with them.

-Cut to Mrs. Ferrars, a veritable dragon of an old woman dominating the Norland dinner table, with many insinuating remarks about parasites and hangers-on, and frequent references to Edward’s great future. “He would be a great man in Parliament if he chose to be, but since he has his heart set on the church, I’m sure he will end by becoming a bishop!” We should have seen enough of Edward by now to find this extremely ludicrous.

-The next day, Elinor tries to draw Edward out about his plans for the future, but he is gloomy and reticent. Then Mrs. Dashwood talks to Elinor about the offer of a cottage from her cousin Sir John Middleton. “Would it be wrong to take you away from Norland now? Should we stay a little longer?” Mrs. Dashwood asks. Elinor says no, and encourages her to reply to Sir John at once.

-To be continued….