Book Review: Sense and Sensibility
I wish, as well as everybody else, to be perfectly happy; but, like everybody else, it must be in my own way
Every year I read a Jane Austen. The past two(?) years I've been thoroughly disappointed – Mansfield Park I hated because it was too damn pious for my liking. The heroine was too meek for me – sure she wins in the end, but BOY that was one hell of an exasperating journey. Persuasion fell a little flat for me – I wasn’t on the edge of my seat as I was for Pride and Prejudice, giggling like a schoolgirl with Northanger Abbey or cackling at the sass of Emma. But this year’s Austen is Sense and Sensibility… THANK GOD. I was very close to giving up on the author entirely. But this book I loved.
In my edition of the book, there was a critical essay at the end, I don’t usually read these but when the writer said that ‘Sense and Sensibility’ is pretty much the most boring out of all of Austen’s books – I got somewhat mad – this book was great. I was here for the drama, and boy, was there a lot of it! Marianne and Elinor Dashwood are cheated out of money by their sister-in-law Fanny because she is worried that it would take away from her son’s inheritance. Like she and her husband (John- the Dashwood heir as well as Elinor and Marianne’s brother) didn’t just inherit a whole dang country estate and John being successful and wealthy in his own right. Greedy bastards (and that’s the polite version). Marianne, Elinor, their sister Margaret and their mother move to a small cottage in Devon where the local community welcomes them with gusto. So not all bad.
Marianne is someone we all love- she is wild, impulsive and not afraid to show her feelings – however tempestuous they are. There are downsides to this too – she opens herself up to gossip and is wholly unsympathetic to the quiet heartbreak of her sister Elinor. Marianne is essentially all younger siblings. That’s not to say she isn’t a great character – she brings the drama that is oftentimes lacking in Austen’s novels. Marianne’s love interest at the beginning of the novel, Willoughby, is the perfect dramatic foil and unfortunately brings out the worst in Marianne. Their ‘love affair’ read a little like a soap opera – maybe that’s why I enjoyed it so much.
Elinor Dashwood, being the eldest, is more stoic in her propriety. Just because she is now poor doesn’t mean she no longer has class. I’m not sure I would’ve been able to keep my cool if I found out that the man I was in love with and pretty sure who loved me too had been secretly engaged to another for four years. Yeah. Man. Damn. My poor heart. Poor Elinor. How she remains composed throughout is a wonder. That critic must not like tea. BECAUSE THE TEA IS STRONG IN THIS ONE. Setting aside the piping hot tea. Elinor is seen as the righteous one, which for the times makes sense. It is a shame that there isn’t as much ‘meat’ to her characters as she oftentimes gets overshadowed by 1. Her sister 2. The drama.
This is probably tied second with Northanger Abbey in terms of my favourite Jane Austen books. Nothing can quite beat Emma, but Sense and Sensibility is high on the list.