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Title
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The Colonel’s story
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Description
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Here we see Colonel Brandon telling Elinor about his own experience with Mr. Willoughby. After Willoughby denying he ever loved Marianne, she was crushed, and all their mutual friends renounced his actions. The Colonel, who also admired Marianne, came to speak with Elinor and tell her about his private interactions with Willoughby. The Colonel tells her that as a young man he was in love with a young woman who was married to his older brother. She then divorced the Colonel’s older brother while the Colonel was in East India with his regiment. When he returned, he found her dying in a debtor's prison, with a young daughter. The Colonel then took charge of the daughter, named Eliza. He paid for her schooling. He permitted Eliza to go to Bath with her friend who was accompanying her ill father. The father was largely confined to the house, and the girls went out unchaperoned. Eliza met and fell in love with Willoughby, and she had a child by him. Willoughby then abandoned her. The Colonel told Elinor this in the hopes that it would help Marianne to get over him. In this image the two are sitting in front of a fireplace. This scene occurs in chapter 31 as noted underneath the title of this image. The characters are shown in the traditional regency style, with Colonel Brandon wearing waistcoat, tailcoat, and overcoat. Elinor wears the regency style dress with an empire waist. Her hair is worn tied up, as was tradition for women after their coming out before the queen, signaling her entrance into society. The regency period dated to the early nineteenth century (1811-1820) when George, Prince of Wales, later George IV (r. 1820-1830), reigned as regent for his mentally ill father, King George III (r. 1760-1820). The regency period is associated with the rise of neoclassicism in art and fashion. The same image appears as the frontispiece for the Dent 1893, 1894, 1895, 1896, and 1897 editions of Sense and Sensibility.
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Image Creator
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William Cubit Cooke (engraver)
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Identifier
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mta:25580
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Source Name
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Sense and Sensibility
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Image
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