Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I just want to briefly comment on my lowering Sense and Sensibility from a 4 star novel to a 3 star:
It isn’t that I found the writing less interesting or of lower quality, and I enjoyed the overall story just as much as I remembered. The only real change is that I’m older than I was the first time I read it. An entire decade older, in fact.
When I first read Sense and Sensibility I was aware that Elinor’s behavior was the better of the two, but I didn’t actually see anything all that wrong in Marianne’s. A little dramatic occasionally, but I did always feel everything she did and said was justified and logical.
Now reading it as an adult(ish), I found myself constantly rolling my eyes at Marianne’s melodramatics! And more than once I had to stop and take a break from reading because she was being so completely ridiculous…
Again, I don’t think this is anything against the book. In fact, if you think about it, my changing maturity level changing my view of an immature character’s behavior can only be a testament to the quality of the writing. Austen portrays both an immature teenager and a more mature (but no less emotional) young adult perfectly!
I only rated it lower than before because my enjoyment of the reading experience was less than before. I still think everything about the book to be of the same quality and I still recommend it just as highly as always.
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