My review of "Sense and Sensibility" by Jane Austen @ ELISA ENGLISH's Blog 英語園地

Elisa English's review, written on 4/30/10

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

Jane Austen is one of my favorite authors, so you can imagine the number of books I read written by her and the movies or mini TV series made out of her books. The books I have read are Emma, Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion and Sense and Sensibility. The ones I like the most are Emma and Pride and Prejudice.

The reason that I am writing this book review was a promise to a friend. I don’t particularly like this novel, not that it is not good, but that I have read the best of Jane Austen’s novels before reading this one. Pride and Prejudice is so well written that it somehow overshadows other Jane Austen’s novels.

What I like about Jane Austen’s novels is her acute insight of human nature, talentedly portrayed, creatively written and in a tone of mockery, something not easily emulated. Her storyline is always enchanting with nice twists and fantastic dialogs.

Sense and Sensibility is entertaining, infused with flirtation and folly that centers at the lives, especially the amorous events, and the relationship of the two consummately different elder sisters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood. The entire novel revolves around sense and sensibility and the precarious balance of the two, reason and emotion.

So, what is sense and what is sensibility? As I look up the meaning of the words, sensibility seems to have a different connotation at the time when Jane Austen wrote the novel. I used to think that sensibility in the novel meant receptiveness to impression and acuteness of feeling. Somehow, it meant capacity for deep emotion and passion as initially expressed by the exuberant Marianne Dashwood. As for the word “sense”, it still means sound practical intelligence accompanied with sensible and reasonable actions as illustrated by the reserved Elinor Dashwood, most of the time.

In this novel, we witness moral dilemmas. We see a world where money takes precedence over true love. It is an interesting novel and you will find unexpected twist at the end of the story.

If you haven’t read any of Jane Austen’s novels, I would suggest that you read this book first. Since it is her first novel, it is not as deftly written as her later works and is more easily read and understood.