A review by bhnmt61
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

4.0

I think this is the fourth time I've read S&S, but the last time was several years ago. Having seen several film and TV adaptations in the meantime, I'd forgotten how flat the ending is. Emma Thompson knocks it out of the park in her adaptation, but in the book, Elinor runs from the room when she finds out Edward hasn't married Lucy, and Austen never describes the proposal because it "need not be particularly told." Marianne is parceled out almost as a reward for Col. Brandon's loyalty (Elinor thinks "to him [Brandon] the reward of her sister was due," and then in chap. 50, "They each felt [Brandon's] sorrows, and their own obligations, and Marianne, by general consent, was to be the reward of all"). Again, Emma Thompson and the BBC make it work better in their adaptations. I still adore this book, it has some of the funniest toss-off lines of any of Austen's writing (Robert and Lucy Ferrars "passed some months in great happiness at Dawlish for she had many relations and old acquaintances to cut"), but it wasn't quite as good as I remembered. This is perhaps one of the few cases where the film is better than the book, although the book is still pretty darn good.