AUTHOR: Jane Austen
STARTED: January 7, 2013
FINISHED: January 31, 2013
PAGES: 315
GENRE: Literature
FIRST SENTENCE: The family of Dashwood had been long settled in Sussex.
SUMMARY: [From Barnes and Noble] Two sisters of opposing temperaments but who share the pangs of tragic love provide the subjects for Sense and Sensibility. Elinor, practical and conventional, is the epitome of sense; Marianne, emotional and sentimental, the embodiment of sensibility. To each comes the sorrow of unhappy love: Elinor desires a man who is promised to another while Marianne loses her heart to a scoundrel who jilts her. Their mutual suffering brings a closer understanding between the two sisters — and true love finally triumphs when sense gives way to sensibility and sensibility gives way to sense.
THOUGHTS: At the risk of pre-empting discussion at our Jane Austen book club, I've decided to go ahead a review my re-read of Sense and Sensibility. In my original review, I thought the book was good, not great, and hoped to find the time to read it again and pay more attention to things.Well, it'd been over seven years and I devoted as much attention to this book as a could. My review didn't change much. This Austen, to me, is still good but not great. But, what did change, was my reason for that review.
Austen has a way of writing characters that makes them both totally familiar and addicting to hear about (including our "villains"). During my first read I never immersed myself into the text or the characters. This time I did and, I gotta say, some of them are downright annoying - but in a way that reminds you about that one friend you know and love but also sometimes hate. More than once I wanted to picked up Marianne and tell her to chill the eff out. Life goes on, lady. Let's go get some drinks and dance the night away! Also, Colonel Brandon - it may be a sign of my era - but man up already! Finally, I found Elinor to be almost too mopey and stoic. I get that these main characters needed to play off each other and the plot, but man did I want to smack them around at times.
I don't know what it says about me that I found some of the secondary characters to be the most interesting. Namely, John Dashwood and his wife, Fanny. There was something about those characters that I found to be highly amusing. Their selfishness and how it plays out was hilarious to me (particularly the discussion of the money in the opening scenes). I didn't like their characters (cause, really, who can) but I enjoyed their scenes. The same thing with Sir John Middleton. He was a hoot to me, but I can see why he would be a trying character to be around all the time.
In the end, I think Sense and Sensibility offers a good representation of its era in history. Women had only marriage to achieve and money was everything. I can't blame half of the characters (ahemWilloughbyahem) for acting the way they do, because that is was that era called for. He's an ass yes, but I get why he's all jerkish.
So, still a good book because it represents the era (and was amusing) but not great because I got annoyed at the leads a bit too often for my taste.
RATING: Re-Read 6/10 [Original Rating was 7/10]
Comments