Sense and Sensibility (film) Davies, the screenwriter of "Pride and Prejudice", adapted "Sense and Sensibility" for television. As a reaction to what he said was Lee's overly "sentimental" film, this production features events found in the novel but excluded from Thompson's screenplay, such as Willoughby's seduction of Eliza and his duel with Brandon. It also features actors closer to the ages in the source material. "Sense and Sensibility" has maintained its popularity into the twenty-first century. In 2004, Louise Flavin referred to the 1995 film as "the most popular of the Austen film adaptations," and in 2008, "The Independent" ranked it as the third-best
Sense and Sensibility of inheritance. Gene Ruoff's book "Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility" explores these issues in an entire book-length discussion on the novel. Ruoff's first two chapters deal extensively on the subject of wills and on the discourse of inheritance. These topics reveal what Ruoff calls "the cultural fixation on priority of male birth." According to Ruoff, male birth is by far the dominant issue in these legal conversations. Ruoff observes that, within the linear family, the order of male birth decides issues of eligibility and merit. When Robert Ferrars becomes the eldest son, Edward is no longer appealing to his "opportunistic