Sense and Sensibility in Classics Without All the Class

Mar 02, 2010 Cecily rated it really liked it

Shelves: classics, miscellaneous-fiction

A classic in so many ways, yet I couldn't enjoy it as much as the last time I read an Austen. It's too familiar (not a problem with books I really love). I think my tastes are darker now.

It is a story in three sections of the three Dashwood sisters (though the youngest is so irrelevant to the story that I wonder why she exists) as they try to find love in a world of fickle, avaricious men - a situation exacerbated by their reduced circumstances. Elinor is the sense, Marianne the sensibility and ...more

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Aug 20, 2011 Ebster Davis rated it liked it

I'm trying hard to evaluate this story on its own merits, cuz seriously it's very similar to some other books by Jane Austen but with less plot.

My favorite part of this book is the very beginning with John and Fanny Dashwood (they're not even main characters).

It's like 20 pages of a systematic, repetitive, bland discussion about money but it's still a gem to me because it highlights the way people can rationalize themselves into justifying pretty much anything that will benefit them personally. I'm trying hard to evaluate this story on its own merits, cuz seriously it's very similar to some other books by Jane Austen but with less plot.

My favorite part of this book is the very beginning with John and Fanny Dashwood (they're not even main characters).

It's like 20 pages of a systematic, repetitive, bland discussion about money but it's still a gem to me because it highlights the way people can rationalize themselves into justifying pretty much anything that will benefit them personally.

It's kind of a metephor for the rest of the book; really, really boring but with a point.

I'd like to think this writting is Austen's way of calling the Dashwoods and the Willoughbys of the world out on that kind of behavior, but she seems much more forgiving of human nature then I am.

The story is about Elinor Dashwood and her family. Her dad just died and her deadbeat half-brother won't support his family like he promised. So Elinor, her mom and her sisters move into a really small house and kind of live off of the charity of their extended family.

A lot of this story centers around realtively normal social interactions of this extended family and their friends. Traveling, going to parties, eating together, gossiping and stuff like that. There is a little bit of intrigue, but hy virtue of the POV and narriative type, it is underplayed. (The author deals empatheticly even with the would-be villian...even though I think what he did was pretty bad).

I liked that Elinor is not just an intellectual "thinker" or empathetic "feeler", she's a stratigist, even when things look bleak she's always and planning and trying to make things better for her family.

This book also suprised me because most of the time in Austen's stories people repress their feelings and in this one people get real mad and yell at each other.

(It was also a bit more interesting on the romance side, because of how Elinor and her sister react differently to the matters of the heart.)

If you like situational drama with light romance, you might like this story. Or you might think it's really boring, it just depends on if you like Austen's style of writing. ...more

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May 31, 2009 Shea rated it really liked it

Shelves: pages-and-popcorn, all-things-austen

I enjoyed this novel, although not as much as Pride and Prejudice. There are fewer characters in Sense and Sensibility so it is easier to follow. As in Pride and Prejudice, the relationship between the sisters is very important. I am fascinated that even though the books were written nearly 200 years ago human nature has not changed very much. Sometimes the language can be difficult but once you grow accustomed it becomes easier to read. If you are going to challenge yourself and read Jane Auste ...more

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