Sense and Sensibility

I recently read Jane Austen’s ‘Sense and Sensibility’. I had earlier tried unsuccessfully to read her ‘Pride and Prejudice’. I didn’t read beyond 15-20 pages. I found it so boring. That experience made me think twice before starting to read this book. Since Rajeev Menon’s ‘Kandukondain Kandukondain’, one of my favourite movies, is based on ‘Sense and Sensibility’, that is the only reason why I wanted to read this one. Though I did manage to read the book quickly, I did find it quite boring.

The characters in the book didn’t seem to do anything apart from partying and gossiping (It’s written that some of the characters are facing a money crunch, but do they do anything to earn more money?) and all the female characters except the Dashwoods seemed to be so dumb. Reading about Elinor’s and Marianne’s sufferings didn’t move me even a single bit. Did any of you like this book and enjoyed reading it? If the answer is yes, then what did you like in this book?

6 thoughts on “Sense and Sensibility

  1. Curious

    Jane austen may not really be everyone’s cuppa…but once u like and strike a chord on something that she’s written you’ll love her to death!

    Pride and Prejudice is one of my all time favorites and I have read it over a thousand times already and every time a movie comes on this adaptation I find it really disappointing!

    Guess that’s the way things work..the one that u like the first will always be the best and stick on and the ones that comes later…will be judged on it! 🙂

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  2. Aparna

    Sathej,
    Oh then you might like Sense and Sensibility too

    Ranjhith,
    Like the saying ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’ maybe you should not judge a book by its title too 😉

    Curious,
    Oh so you are a fan of Jane Austen’s? 🙂 I know quite a few people who like Pride and Prejudice a lot and that’s why I tried reading that book. I have to read the book fully someday.
    >the one that u like the first will always be the best
    That’s true 🙂

    Reply
  3. sf

    One of the major problems facing the characters is that they are not allowed / able to earn more money due to their class etc. They are expected to live off property and business is not ‘respectable’. The girls don’t have much of an education and no skill sets that they can leverage in the job market. Fact is , there isn’t any ‘job market’ and being women, their only option is marriage which is like a ‘meat market’. So the ladies in the book are in a rather dire situation but Austen manages to make a comedy out of it. A sitcom if you will.

    when you complain about the female characters being dumb, it is possibly because Austen chose to portray them that way….they wouldn’t have had much of an eduaction so sitting at home, that’s all they would have done…gossip, i mean. I think Austen’s novels are meant to be gentle satires so you have to read it in that vein to appreciate them. Although I will be the first to admit that its quite difficult to do that when you’ve become accustomed to a diet of popular fiction like Harry Potter!! I myself could barely finish Sense and Sensibility..

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  4. Aparna

    sf,
    Welcome to my blog!
    What you say is true but still reading about those girls doing nothing except partying was boring!
    >its quite difficult to do that when you’ve become accustomed to a diet of popular fiction like Harry Potter!!
    Exactly!

    Reply

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