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3.11 AVERAGE
3.11 AVERAGE
Best modern (well only modern) retelling I've read of JA's original. Loved it.
Uh, same thing again - 6 years later. Can't even remember reading it the first time. Uh oh.
Uh, same thing again - 6 years later. Can't even remember reading it the first time. Uh oh.
This book is the reason I avoid modern Austen stories. Poorly written(basically a copycat of Austen's writing with some references to the modern age thrown in)and it left me realizing just how brilliant Austen's books are...witty dialogue, memorable characters and a moral to tie it all together.
This is a modern re-telling of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility. It basically transports all the characters and events directly to the 21st century, adding things like cell phones and iPods as needed. As an intellectual exercise, this was interesting to read, but many of the characters ended up pretty unlikeable in their modern versions. It's a lot harder to feel sympathy for a family of women turned out of their inheritance when they clearly have the option to just get a job. I think if you're curious about what this story would look like today, it's worth a read, but it also is pretty strained and unbelievable at times.
interesting voice. never read joanna trollope before. again, not particularly updated, save for scattered mentions of Twitter and texting etc. Where's the updated Persuasion? this definitely reminds me that we are due for an Austen adaptation film, a la Clueless or Bridget Jones' Diary. This or Persuasion would make the perfect ones. Do it, Hollywood.
For a modern adaptation, there's a lot of elevated dialogue between the characters. I'd only be pulled back into the present day because of random mentions of pop culture like Spiderman or iPods or Twitter. So, It basically reads as if it were written in the 1800's which isn't entirely what you expect going into the book, at least I wasn't expecting that. I did enjoy the fact that Trollope invented scenes not in the original Austen text, i.e. Marianne running into Willoughby near the end, in which he laments his abandonment of her when he chose to marry for money as opposed to love.
Trollope's version was certainly very similar to the original, which was both good and bad.
Good because then I knew exactly who was going to end up with whom, what was happeneing etc.
Bad because I knew everything that was going to happen!
Trollope's writing was absolutely lovely to read, and I really think she captured Austen's wit and charm very well. I've never read any of Trollope's other books, but I definitely will in the future after having now been introduced to her writing.
The one thing that annoyed me was a constant use of Italics. I enjoy a good italicised word as much as the next person, but wow, were there a lot in this book. Seeing as I read this book at the end of last year (Really Imogen? This post is so late!) I can't quite remember who was the main culprit, but I'm fairly certain it was Margaret, the youngest sister. She was always saying "Oh yes, but really mamma! Must we go visit the Middleton's?" "How positively boring!" "How utterly unbelieveable Elinor!" Normally I wouldn't pay much/any attention to words being italisiced but this was constant. At one point I actually flipped through the book and checked a few pages at random and every single one had at least one italicised word. It become a bit of a game to find a page that didn't have one!
The other issue I had was, I wish the story had been just slightly different from the original. For example, the ending could have been the same, but perhaps the lead up to it could have been reached differently?
Some things also didn't particularly fit into a modern, 21st Century setting. The main example being the removal of the Dashwood's from their home. In the original, Mr Dashwood's only son, from a previous relationship takes over the house and basically kicks them out. Which, while not very nice, is perfectly plausible as he was the heir to the estate and could do with the house and its tenants as he wished. In the modern setting, while John and Belle Dashwood were not married, they had still been together for around twenty years. Surely, this counts for something in this day and age?
Belle and Marianne were particularly annoying characters who JUST NEEDED TO GET JOBS AND QUIT COMPLAINING. Once again, in the original, Mrs Dashwood would not have gotten a job, as this was just not what happened. But with this contemporary setting, it frustrated me how ok with taking advantage of the Middleton's Belle was, when she was in charge of looking after and providing for her family and thus, should've gotten a job!! Elinor was far too nice to them!
Right, I think I've done enough complaining. It actually makes it look like I didn't really enjoy the book, but I did! I really did! It was a nice, easy read that was further improved by Trollope's lovely writing. And like I said, I really liked knowing who everyone was going to end up with in the end, despite all their various troubles.
I did enjoy this book and I did recommend it to several customers!
More to be found here!
Good because then I knew exactly who was going to end up with whom, what was happeneing etc.
Bad because I knew everything that was going to happen!
Trollope's writing was absolutely lovely to read, and I really think she captured Austen's wit and charm very well. I've never read any of Trollope's other books, but I definitely will in the future after having now been introduced to her writing.
The one thing that annoyed me was a constant use of Italics. I enjoy a good italicised word as much as the next person, but wow, were there a lot in this book. Seeing as I read this book at the end of last year (Really Imogen? This post is so late!) I can't quite remember who was the main culprit, but I'm fairly certain it was Margaret, the youngest sister. She was always saying "Oh yes, but really mamma! Must we go visit the Middleton's?" "How positively boring!" "How utterly unbelieveable Elinor!" Normally I wouldn't pay much/any attention to words being italisiced but this was constant. At one point I actually flipped through the book and checked a few pages at random and every single one had at least one italicised word. It become a bit of a game to find a page that didn't have one!
The other issue I had was, I wish the story had been just slightly different from the original. For example, the ending could have been the same, but perhaps the lead up to it could have been reached differently?
Some things also didn't particularly fit into a modern, 21st Century setting. The main example being the removal of the Dashwood's from their home. In the original, Mr Dashwood's only son, from a previous relationship takes over the house and basically kicks them out. Which, while not very nice, is perfectly plausible as he was the heir to the estate and could do with the house and its tenants as he wished. In the modern setting, while John and Belle Dashwood were not married, they had still been together for around twenty years. Surely, this counts for something in this day and age?
Belle and Marianne were particularly annoying characters who JUST NEEDED TO GET JOBS AND QUIT COMPLAINING. Once again, in the original, Mrs Dashwood would not have gotten a job, as this was just not what happened. But with this contemporary setting, it frustrated me how ok with taking advantage of the Middleton's Belle was, when she was in charge of looking after and providing for her family and thus, should've gotten a job!! Elinor was far too nice to them!
Right, I think I've done enough complaining. It actually makes it look like I didn't really enjoy the book, but I did! I really did! It was a nice, easy read that was further improved by Trollope's lovely writing. And like I said, I really liked knowing who everyone was going to end up with in the end, despite all their various troubles.
I did enjoy this book and I did recommend it to several customers!
More to be found here!
I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. It didn't even bother me when Nancy Steele said "amazeballs"!
2.5
When I read [b:Eligible|25852870|Eligible (The Austen Project, #4)|Curtis Sittenfeld|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1460477855l/25852870._SY75_.jpg|26428236], I got super excited about reading the other books in the Austen Project series. I love modernized versions of classic stories, and I thought Eligible was very well done. This one, not so much.
The whole point of a retelling is to use the bones of a story to tell a modern version. What Trollope has done feels more like she's taken Austen's exact story and dropped in a few electronic devices, automobiles, and choice vulgarities to make it "modern." The drama behind marriages and romance in Austen's works is silly, to be sure, especially to a modern audience, but that same drama in a 21st-century setting is laughable.
It would make sense for one or two characters to be caught up in the old-fashioned ideas about marriage, inheritance, land ownership, etc., but not ALL OF THEM. The least annoying character is third-sister Mags, and that's mostly because she has absolutely no function at all.
Of course, this may all just be a rich people thing. Maybe they do think differently about disowning children and who should get what in the will. Not being rich or being acquainted with any rich people, I just don't know.
The end of the book is marginally better than the beginning, but that's not saying a whole lot. If I wanted to read about women lamenting about the lack of eligible bachelors and worrying themselves sick over how they're going to survive living in a modest cottage rather than on an estate, I would read Austen's superior work.
When I read [b:Eligible|25852870|Eligible (The Austen Project, #4)|Curtis Sittenfeld|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1460477855l/25852870._SY75_.jpg|26428236], I got super excited about reading the other books in the Austen Project series. I love modernized versions of classic stories, and I thought Eligible was very well done. This one, not so much.
The whole point of a retelling is to use the bones of a story to tell a modern version. What Trollope has done feels more like she's taken Austen's exact story and dropped in a few electronic devices, automobiles, and choice vulgarities to make it "modern." The drama behind marriages and romance in Austen's works is silly, to be sure, especially to a modern audience, but that same drama in a 21st-century setting is laughable.
It would make sense for one or two characters to be caught up in the old-fashioned ideas about marriage, inheritance, land ownership, etc., but not ALL OF THEM. The least annoying character is third-sister Mags, and that's mostly because she has absolutely no function at all.
Of course, this may all just be a rich people thing. Maybe they do think differently about disowning children and who should get what in the will. Not being rich or being acquainted with any rich people, I just don't know.
The end of the book is marginally better than the beginning, but that's not saying a whole lot. If I wanted to read about women lamenting about the lack of eligible bachelors and worrying themselves sick over how they're going to survive living in a modest cottage rather than on an estate, I would read Austen's superior work.
I did not love this... I felt like none of the charm of the original novel translated into this modern retelling. Also, Willoughby is called Wills 🙄