Exactly how steamy is this story?
PG
The lovers in Sense and Sensibility are all chaste and innocent – at least, as far as we know. As with all things Austen, implication is more important here than what happens openly on the page. Though we don't even see a single lip-lock in these three hundred and fifty pages, there are all kinds of scandalous deeds hidden under the surface. Specifically, under Willoughby's surface. We learn, through politely veiled terms, that he has had… er, romantic relations with Colonel Brandon's ward, Eliza, and he got her pregnant. This is a world in which sex is never spoken about in polite society, but it's constantly there, carefully concealed in the background.