MY OPINION: ****
This was my second Jane Austen book ever and while it took a while to get through, I very much enjoyed my time reading it. I recently received the entire Jane Austen collection for Christmas and I'm going to try to read all of them this year. So far, I've done P&P and now S&S and I'm hoping to start Emma soon.
I didn't like this one as much as P&P just because I know Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth SO well from my countless viewings of the film and my constant rereads of my favorite lines. However, this book covered a lot of similar themes that I thought were interesting. I think Austen has a habit of falling into very similar plot lines in all of her books, which would usually be boring after a while but are actually interesting if you are a fan of the basic premise.
I am a Jane Austen stan. I love her work and while I haven't read all of it, she has never disappointed me. This book was very long, however, which at times made it a little bit tiresome. As in many classics, I think there are things that could have been cut out and we still would have gotten the same story; however, I understand why everything that was included was important to the story and character development.
One critique I have for this book and also P&P to a certain extent is the confusing names and difficulty figuring out who is speaking. There are times when the narration switches without any clear signal and each character seems to go by Miss Dashwood and Mrs. Dashwood. There are also multiple characters named John. After a while, it gets very confusing, at least for me personally, especially since I took a lot of breaks as I was reading this book at work and had to stop every time a customer came in (probably not the best idea, if I'm being honest here).
The story follows two sisters, both clearly opposites of each other, entrenched in heartwrenching and agonizing romances with their respective men. There is a third sister, but she is much younger and barely mentioned in the story, so I will not be talking about her in this review.
Elinor is the older, more levelheaded, clear-minded sister of the two. She tends to keep her emotions to herself, even when she is going through a lot of pain in her relationships, and is fiercely loyal to her family. I liked Elinor's character a lot, though there were times when I wish she had been stronger in the various situations she was put through. I do understand this is Victorian England and women definitely had a difficult go of things but I do wish we had gotten to see more of the feminist current you could just vaguely feel when reading this book.
Marianne is the emotional, flighty, overdramatic younger sister who has standards higher than heaven when it comes to men but falls in love deeply and fully. She added a lot to the drama of the book and gave it a flair that we don't see from Elinor. I believe that Marianne was modeled after Austen herself, though I could be wrong, and I think Marianne was definitely more personable and realistic of the two.
Both Elinor and Marianne go through quite honestly horrible and complex relationships throughout the course of the novel. Elinor and Edward Ferrars were my favorite despite the various ups and downs they endure. I do think it was a prime example of how miscommunications and responsibilities (to other people) can affect the relationship between two people, no matter if they love each other or not. Edward deserved so much better from his family than what he got. I know people find him very boring and listless but I could really understand where he was coming from and his inability to indulge in the pleasures everyone else was due to his familial restrictions.
Marianne's two men were so different from each other that I found it very interesting to read about how they each came to each other. I do think that the Colonel deserved better, since he spent the majority of the book pining after someone who only really saw him as second choice. John Willoughby seemed more obsessed with money and himself than he ever was with Marianne, even with his play at redemption. I was a fan at the beginning but as we got to learn more about him, I began to hate him, similarly to Marianne's arc with John.
The book features an interesting commentary on the economic function of marriage. Everything comes down to how much money each person makes and stands to gain in each union. The opinions on each relationship are dependent on the financial status of the man and woman. Considering the time period, this is very true of the social constructs of the time, and I liked Jane Austen's comments on the overall structure of marriage and relationships without outright criticizing it. By emphasizing the love between each character, she downplays the role of money in these unions despite the commentary from side characters like Mrs. Jennings.
On that tangent, I liked how the men seemed very obsessed with money and played the "gold diggers" of the time rather than the typical stereotypical female gold diggers. With less wealthy male characters, Austen satirizes the gold digger trope by emphasizing the need for the men to make strong matches with rich women, which I thought was interesting. Lucy Steele's character also emphasized the fact that the vast majority of the women in relationships in this book were not in it for the money and more so for the love and comfort they receive from the men. Lucy wasn't my favorite character but I did appreciate her inclusion within this book.
This is Jane Austen's first published work. I think that starting this one after reading P&P makes it easier to see the contrast from her early writing to her later writing, though I think it will become more obvious once I finish the rest of her books. I liked seeing the more linear progression of this book, which, while still sort of confusing, made it easier to follow than in some other classics that seem to skip back and forth. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I would recommend it to readers looking for a beautifully-written, romantic commentary on the societal construct of marriage, money, love, sense, and sensibility.
Main Character: Elinor, Marianne
Sidekick(s): Colonel Brandon, Edward, Mrs. Jennings, etc
Villain(s): Money, misunderstandings, etc
Classics Elements: This book was written in 1811 and features more classic themes and prose.
Comments
Post a Comment