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A review by anna_wa
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
emotional
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
I was wary of leaving a review because I started this on September 25th, then after completing the second volume on October 9th, I stopped reading because the class was moving on to Pride & Prjeudice, and then I didn't approach it again until November 30th (after I had finished Persuasion, the final novel of the semester).
However, I know Catherine is going to want to know what I thought of the book since it's one of her favorites of all time, so here I go...
Well, I'm glad that I read this book as part of a class instead of on my own because if I had read it on my own I probably would have taken it too seriously and not caught a lot of the humor/irony Austen was aiming for. The way she sets up the entire novel as a satire of sentimental novels of the time was wonderful, and I love knowing that this entire novel was basically a callout of her brother: the one who got all the inheritence and left his sisters with nothing, forcing them and their mother to live in poverty. Like heck yes, you better call him out for being terrible to you all.
What I love the most about this book (other than her @'ing her brother through the characters of John and Fanny Dashwood) is that it is a story about the love between two sisters. People can say all they want about the love between the heterosexual couples that marry at the end of the book, but the heart of the book for me is how Elinor and Marianne comfort each other and grow both as individuals and as sisters.
When our teacher first told us that the message of the book was you can't have "too much sense and not enough sensibility" and you also can't have "too much sensibility and not enough sense" because both will end in disaster, I thought "duh, doesn't everyone know that?" but no, they didn't actually and they still don't (I'm looking at certain people who think there is one objective way of thinking that is not inherently emotional, especially music critics). So thank you Jane Austen for spreading that message, and I hope it reaches the people in the 21st century who still need to see it.
All in all I loved this book and I hope that in the future I will read it again, without such a big lag in between when I start and when I finish, so that I may appreciate it to its fullest extent.
However, I know Catherine is going to want to know what I thought of the book since it's one of her favorites of all time, so here I go...
Well, I'm glad that I read this book as part of a class instead of on my own because if I had read it on my own I probably would have taken it too seriously and not caught a lot of the humor/irony Austen was aiming for. The way she sets up the entire novel as a satire of sentimental novels of the time was wonderful, and I love knowing that this entire novel was basically a callout of her brother: the one who got all the inheritence and left his sisters with nothing, forcing them and their mother to live in poverty. Like heck yes, you better call him out for being terrible to you all.
What I love the most about this book (other than her @'ing her brother through the characters of John and Fanny Dashwood) is that it is a story about the love between two sisters. People can say all they want about the love between the heterosexual couples that marry at the end of the book, but the heart of the book for me is how Elinor and Marianne comfort each other and grow both as individuals and as sisters.
When our teacher first told us that the message of the book was you can't have "too much sense and not enough sensibility" and you also can't have "too much sensibility and not enough sense" because both will end in disaster, I thought "duh, doesn't everyone know that?" but no, they didn't actually and they still don't (I'm looking at certain people who think there is one objective way of thinking that is not inherently emotional, especially music critics). So thank you Jane Austen for spreading that message, and I hope it reaches the people in the 21st century who still need to see it.
All in all I loved this book and I hope that in the future I will read it again, without such a big lag in between when I start and when I finish, so that I may appreciate it to its fullest extent.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Abandonment, and Pregnancy
Minor: Death of parent