Classics Group Read (pre 1900) - Sense and Sensibility - November 2015 - SPOILERS ALLOWED

[Paul]

Spoilers are allowed in this thread. Please unselect 'Add to my update feed' so other don't see your comments.
Things to consider:
1. Did you like the book?
2. Did you like or dislike the main characters?
3. Do the characters develop?
4. What did you think of the plot and the ending of the story?
5. Do you have any particular favourite quotes or scenes?
6. Would you read anything else by this author?

[Joy]

I have read Sense and Sensibility numerous times but thought I’d read it again for this month’s group read. I’m a great fan of Jane Austen (I won’t hear a word said against Emma, Persuasion and Pride and Prejudice ;) ) and do like Sense and Sensibility, just not quite as much as my favourites.
On this reading what I enjoyed most were the minor characters. Mrs Jennings is good entertainment and it struck me that Jane Austen changed her mind during the book about how she was to be portrayed. At the beginning she is a coarse busybody with no manners, but later in the story actually shows a really kind heart (for example in declaring that Edward would be welcome to bed and board at her house when he is cast off by his mother; and by staying at Cleveland to support Elinor while Marianne is ill.) Or perhaps it is Elinor’s perception of Mrs Jennings that changes – maybe she comes to realise that although Mrs Jennings loves drama and gossip that she is also generous and sympathetic.
I also enjoyed the deliciously self-centred Fanny. I love Jane Austen’s satirical humour. For example near the beginning when Fanny is persuading her husband not to part with any money to his half-sisters, saying how onerous her mother had found annuities – ‘it was the more unkind in my father, because, otherwise, the money would have been entirely at my mother’s disposal, without any restriction whatever.’ And after Edward and Lucy’s engagement has been made public, John Dashwood says that his wife ‘has borne it all with the fortitude of an angel! She says she shall never think well of anybody again.’
However, I just can’t feel happy with Marianne marrying Col Brandon. She ‘found herself at nineteen, submitting to new attachments’. Poor girl – I know Brandon is portrayed as a respectable, honest and caring person, but I don’t like that Marianne has to submit to marriage with a much older man just because she was headstrong and made a mistake about Willoughby’s character. We are told that eventually Marianne comes to love Brandon whole-heartedly, but we don’t see it from her point of view.

[Georgina]

I am not a fan of Jane Austen's writing style, but to my surprise enjoyed this book when I watched on PBS. By the way, marrying older men was a custom in many countries, especially among the upper rich classes. The reason why, is because most men by their later years already have an established profession and can provide a better life for their families, also at that time most women did not work, so of course the more reason to do so.