Sense and Sensibility (Penguin Classics)
by Jane Austen
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jane AustenBrand: Penguin Group USA
Illustrator: Coralie Bickford-Smith
Preface: Claire Lamont
Introduction: Tony Tanner
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-10-27
ISBN: 0141040378
Number of pages: 448
Publisher: Penguin Classics Hardcover
Book Reviews of Sense and Sensibility (Penguin Classics)
Book Review: The transforming power of loving "Sisterhood"
Summary: 5 Stars
I've read four Jane Austen novels in rapid succession, having been rapidly ensnared by Emma (Modern Library Classics), and avidly seeking more of this fabulous writer whose greatness I was amazed to have only just discovered. (The others were Pride And Prejudice, and Persuasion
As with all the great classics found on Amazon, many readers have already offered excellent reviews. In these cases, I have felt little need to add my own, unless I feel I have something new to offer. In the case of Sense and Sensibility, I do indeed believe the need to offer my view, to do this book what I believe is better justice! Here's why:
Many reviewers (which you may read if you browse other editions here) profess what is apparently the party line on Austen's works-- that while they "love this book and give it 5 stars", they (feel obliged to) then damn it with faint praise by adding "EVEN if it is one of her a. earliest, b. "not as poslished", c. "not as complex", or d. "not as funny, well-written,... etc. etc."
I must take issue!
1. Even if any or all of the above are so, (which I could waste many lines on disputing, to no useful purpose), why would any of these attributes of supposed inferiority be relevant to enjoying this book for itself? They themselves belie such relevance by noting their own great pleasure in reading THIS Jane Austen book. If indeed JA is a brilliant master novelist (no contest here), any and all her books is worth reading for its own sake, as each of them, and as no doubt JA herself would hope. The only reason to compare the finer distinctions among them would be to recommend which of her books one should read IF one could only read one or two. Indeed, not a one reviewer would I dare say recommend any such thing! Sense and Sensibility, as does each of the other 3 JAs I've read, has its own unique treasures to yield to the reader, and it is for these that each must be appreciated and each and all read.
2. Sense and Sensibility is a great analysis and example of the power of FILIAL love to transform a person for the better, and thereby to enable her to gain happiness. In my view, the interest in placing the two "opposing" virtues of Sense and Sensibility in each of the two sisters, Elinor and Marianne, is not simply to showcase the benefits and pitfalls the key virtue confers to the holder, but, much more illuminatingly, the value of the love between the two to cause the other to grow into a woman who can have BOTH in proper degree. Indeed, the book's ending will prove this!
3. In Sense and Sensibility, there are many themes developed extensively which are not a focus of the three others I read, aside from #2. One is demonstrated in the character and actions of Lucy, initially presented as an almost deceptively minor character. (I wont say more, but this alone is a real gem worth reading the book for.) Another is the evolution of the sisters' regard for a number of important characters in the book. Each of these is developed and explained beautifully--the regard for Willoughby, for Mrs. Jennings, for Captain Brandon, Edward. These changes are effected not only by and within each sister, but by and within several other characters...with most edifying effects for the education not only the protagonists, but for me!
4. Finally, Sense and Sensibility features key themes also showcased in the other three books, e.g., the power of real love to change one's character--one's pride and or prejudices for example (in that named book!), or the well-known to all (but beautifully illustrated examples of) wisdom, that how one reacts to love and the obstacles it creates or are created in its way, depends on character, and luck...but the love itself rarely is under one's control! And yet, of course, since each book's treatment of this theme is unique and reveals a host of unique vicissitudes it can involve, S and S and each of the others is well-worth the reward of the unique discoveries it offers the reader.
I need say no more, and direct the reader to "click" all four of the above into his/her cart!
Summary of Sense and Sensibility (Penguin Classics)
Marianne Dashwood wears her heart on her sleeve, and when she falls in love with the dashing but unsuitable John Willoughby she ignores her sister Elinor's warning that her impulsive behaviour leaves her open to gossip and innuendo. Meanwhile Elinor, always sensitive to social convention, is struggling to conceal her own romantic disappointment, even from those closest to her. Through their parallel experience of love - and its threatened loss - the sisters learn that sense must mix with sensibility if they are to find personal happiness in a society where status and money govern the rules of love.
Though not the first novel she wrote, Sense and Sensibility was the first Jane Austen published. Though she initially called it Elinor and Marianne, Austen jettisoned both the title and the epistolary mode in which it was originally written, but kept the essential theme: the necessity of finding a workable middle ground between passion and reason. The story revolves around the Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne. Whereas the former is a sensible, rational creature, her younger sister is wildly romantic--a characteristic that offers Austen plenty of scope for both satire and compassion. Commenting on Edward Ferrars, a potential suitor for Elinor's hand, Marianne admits that while she "loves him tenderly," she finds him disappointing as a possible lover for her sister:
Oh! Mama, how spiritless, how tame was Edward's manner in reading to us last night! I felt for my sister most severely. Yet she bore it with so much composure, she seemed scarcely to notice it. I could hardly keep my seat. To hear those beautiful lines which have frequently almost driven me wild, pronounced with such impenetrable calmness, such dreadful indifference!Soon however, Marianne meets a man who measures up to her ideal: Mr. Willoughby, a new neighbor. So swept away by passion is Marianne that her behavior begins to border on the scandalous. Then Willoughby abandons her; meanwhile, Elinor's growing affection for Edward suffers a check when he admits he is secretly engaged to a childhood sweetheart. How each of the sisters reacts to their romantic misfortunes, and the lessons they draw before coming finally to the requisite happy ending forms the heart of the novel. Though Marianne's disregard for social conventions and willingness to consider the world well-lost for love may appeal to modern readers, it is Elinor whom Austen herself most evidently admired; a truly happy marriage, she shows us, exists only where sense and sensibility meet and mix in proper measure. --Alix Wilber
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