Title: Sense and SensibilityAuthor: Jane Austen
First Published:
No. of Pages:
Synopsis (from B&N): "Jane Austen’s first published novel, Sense and Sensibility is a wonderfully entertaining tale of flirtation and folly that revolves around two starkly different sisters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood. While Elinor is thoughtful, considerate, and calm, her younger sister is emotional and wildly romantic. Both are looking for a husband, but neither Elinor’s reason nor Marianne’s passion can lead them to perfect happiness — as Marianne falls for an unscrupulous rascal and Elinor becomes attached to a man who’s already engaged.
Startling secrets, unexpected twists, and heartless betrayals interrupt the marriage games that follow. Filled with satiric wit and subtle characterizations, Sense and Sensibility teaches that true love requires a balance of reason and emotion."
Fiction or Nonfiction: Fiction
Comments and Critique: This is the only Austen novel that I've never before read, although I was familiar with the story from watching the movie version. As with all Austen, I greatly enjoyed it and will no doubt reread it in the future. The characters are more difficult to like than in the author's other novels, but her ability to show human weaknesses, follies, and general lack of sense is superb as always. I still feel that Pride & Prejudice is the author's best work, having a more light-hearted tone than found here and with characters that are overall more endearing and fully developed, but this novel is still highly entertaining and a must read for lovers of 18th-19th century English literature.
As an aside, I can also state that the movie version, starring Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, Alan Rickman, and Hugh Grant, is also very enjoyable and worth watching, although I feel that Ms. Thompson and Mr. Grant were miscast in their parts. But Kate Winslet is charming and the adaptation first-rate.
Challenges: 18th and 19th Century Women Writers; 999 ("1001 Books"); (Another) 1% Well-Read; Classics Challenge; Guardian 1000 Novels ("Love"); TBR Lite
1 comments:
I have to admit, this one bored me just a tiny bit. I agree P&P is much better. I think what bored me was not the story itself so much as the emphasis put on social customs of the time. Elinor drove me crazy, and the whole thing seemed to be from her perspective. I would have much preferred it from Marianne's. I would have been much like her had I lived in those times. Propriety makes me antsy. :)
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