Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

July 16th, 2008

Sense and Sensibility
Jane Austen
409 p.

Penguin Classics, 2003
(first published 1811)

Back cover blurb:

Marianne Dashwood wears her heart on her sleeve, and when she falls in love with the dashing but unsuitable John Willoughby she ignores her sister Elinor’s warning that her impulsive behaviour leaves her open to gossip and innuendo. Meanwhile, Elinor, always sensitive to social convention, is struggling to conceal her own romantic disappointment, even from those closest to her Through their parallel experience of love - and its threatened loss - the sisters learn that sense must mix with sensibility if they are to find personal happiness in a society where status and money govern the rules of love.

This book was so boring. Really. I mean, I liked Pride and Prejudice and all, but there was no interest in this book. Okay, I’ll admit, I thought it was a little exciting when Marianne was dying and we had confession time from Willoughby, but otherwise? No. Additionally, I was very confused a lot of the time, because every other person shared the same name, and sometimes they referred to a person as “Miss ___”, and other times by their first names. Keep to one name, people! (I had the same thing against A Game of Thrones. Is it so hard to have one name for people? I mean, in dialogue you can have as many names as possible, but when it’s dialogue I think it one name should suffice.)

As if it wasn’t enough that the story itself was pretty uninteresting, there was the longest and most boring essay after the book was finished which I forced myself to read. It was more boring than the novel itself. It was an old introduction by some Cambridge scholar. Although it was more drab than any other introduction I have read (and seeing as I almost always read the introduction if there is one, I’ve quite a few), it at least told me that apparently, Sense and Sensibility was one of the least-loved Austen-novels. And that made me feel a bit better. I suppose that one day, when I am less lazy and when I have all and any Austen-novel at my perusal, I might read another few, and I hope I will like them more.

Entry Filed under: Classics, English, Fiction