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sophia_sol) wrote2015-03-25 08:25 pm
sophia_sol) wrote2015-03-25 08:25 pm
Sense & Sensibility, by Jane Austen
Sigh. It's been quite a few years since I last read this book, so I couldn't really remember my previous impressions of it. And I wanted to like it! And I mean, it's Jane Austen so it IS very well written. But...I have some issues with it.
First of all and most strikingly to me: it is a book absolutely stuffed full of characters who for various reasons the narrator encourages us to have little respect for. The only characters we're encouraged to actually like and approve of are our four romantic leads (and Elinor and Marianne's mother as well to a lesser degree). Other Austen books do a good job of including a wide range of people among the secondary characters, including good and worthwhile people as well as people the narrator looks down on. (eg. Persuasion has the Crofts, and Benwick, and the Harvilles, and so forth!) But this one? Nope. And reading a book that's so cynical about humanity in general is just not really my thing.
Secondly WOW BRANDON IS SUCH A CREEPER. He is a 35 year old man in love with a 16 year old, and is heard to say the following: "when the romantic refinements of a young mind are obliged to give way, how frequently are they succeeded by such opinions as are but too common, and too dangerous." Which is a little too close to saying that he doesn't want Marianne to ever actually grow up and mature, he likes her specifically for her teenagerness. BRANDON YOU CREEP. And the book is utterly convinced that Brandon is a paragon and I just can't buy into it because the age difference and Marianne's young age make it just so creepy.
Thirdly the book is a little too much in compassion for Willoughby. The fact that he genuinely loved Marianne DOESN'T ACTUALLY MAKE HIS ACTIONS EXCUSABLE. And his explanation for his behaviour to Eliza does not hold the slightest bit of water for me (basically his explanation seems to be that it was just as much her fault, what happened? excuse me she was a sheltered and naive teenager and he a charismatic and selfish 25 year old man. I'm not buying it.) I mean the narrative doesn't actually entirely forgive Willoughby, but it makes enough gestures in the direction of being understanding and sympathetic that I'm just UGH.
Fourthly, I had previously understood the book to be about how an excess of sense OR an excess of sensibility were both problematic, but no, this time through I read it as being entirely on Elinor's side (sense) and not at all on the side of sensibility. The book does a little too much setting Elinor up as perfect; she doesn't seem to actually have any character growth or change over the course of the book even though the book seems to be focusing on her as the main character. It's all Marianne learning from Elinor the value of comporting herself with greater sense.
I did mostly enjoy the book, overall, but what with my various frustrations I don't think it likely I'll want to reread any time soon.
(listened to on audiobook, from Librivox read by Karen Savage)
First of all and most strikingly to me: it is a book absolutely stuffed full of characters who for various reasons the narrator encourages us to have little respect for. The only characters we're encouraged to actually like and approve of are our four romantic leads (and Elinor and Marianne's mother as well to a lesser degree). Other Austen books do a good job of including a wide range of people among the secondary characters, including good and worthwhile people as well as people the narrator looks down on. (eg. Persuasion has the Crofts, and Benwick, and the Harvilles, and so forth!) But this one? Nope. And reading a book that's so cynical about humanity in general is just not really my thing.
Secondly WOW BRANDON IS SUCH A CREEPER. He is a 35 year old man in love with a 16 year old, and is heard to say the following: "when the romantic refinements of a young mind are obliged to give way, how frequently are they succeeded by such opinions as are but too common, and too dangerous." Which is a little too close to saying that he doesn't want Marianne to ever actually grow up and mature, he likes her specifically for her teenagerness. BRANDON YOU CREEP. And the book is utterly convinced that Brandon is a paragon and I just can't buy into it because the age difference and Marianne's young age make it just so creepy.
Thirdly the book is a little too much in compassion for Willoughby. The fact that he genuinely loved Marianne DOESN'T ACTUALLY MAKE HIS ACTIONS EXCUSABLE. And his explanation for his behaviour to Eliza does not hold the slightest bit of water for me (basically his explanation seems to be that it was just as much her fault, what happened? excuse me she was a sheltered and naive teenager and he a charismatic and selfish 25 year old man. I'm not buying it.) I mean the narrative doesn't actually entirely forgive Willoughby, but it makes enough gestures in the direction of being understanding and sympathetic that I'm just UGH.
Fourthly, I had previously understood the book to be about how an excess of sense OR an excess of sensibility were both problematic, but no, this time through I read it as being entirely on Elinor's side (sense) and not at all on the side of sensibility. The book does a little too much setting Elinor up as perfect; she doesn't seem to actually have any character growth or change over the course of the book even though the book seems to be focusing on her as the main character. It's all Marianne learning from Elinor the value of comporting herself with greater sense.
I did mostly enjoy the book, overall, but what with my various frustrations I don't think it likely I'll want to reread any time soon.
(listened to on audiobook, from Librivox read by Karen Savage)