Review: Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
As mentioned previously, I finally succumed to the free trial on Audible and selected a Jane Austen collection with my one free credit. I had eyeballed Game of Thrones, but at this point I know it is full of gratuitous sex and terrible language and if I can help it I avoid such things, I do. There's only so much in-brain editing and page skimming I want to put up with since my reading time is limited and I definitely don't want to have to skim through an audiobook.
Anyway! I finished "Sense and Sensibility" and want to make a few notes on it.
My general preference in fiction books leans towards Fantasy, some Sci-Fi, and especially Ray Bradbury (is he not a genre unto himself?). Years ago I did read Jane Austen's "Emma," and I have poked about classic literature and have Grand Plans to make my way through many of the classics and much of the works I somehow avoided in High School. One year Chris got me "To Kill a Mocking Bird," "Where the Red Fern Grows," "The Scarlet Letter," and I'm trying to remember if there was a fourth one or not, but I never read those three in High School and Chris helped remedy that.
ANYWAY! Back to Sense and Sensibility.
If you're looking for something action-packed, this is not it. The two most exciting things are Maryanne spraining her ankle near the beginning and Maryanne getting a nasty cold or flu that makes everyone worry she might die near the end.
What it is, is a study of human character and actions and how the upper middle class of 19th century England intereacted with each other.
I though the ending was a bit of a Deus Ex Machina with Lucy deciding to jilt Edward and run off with his brother, leaving him free to marry Elinor. I thought that Colonel Brian had more of a fatherly interest in Maryanne rather than a romantic one and would have proposed to Elinor instead, but that's me and my sensibilities.
I was amused by the different vehicles mentioned, Phaetons and Gigs and soforth. This would be Greek to many people. I am not super well versed in 19th century carriages and carts, but some of the names were definitely familiar and can conjure up at least a vague image of what they were.
I will note that listening to Jane's writing makes me more prone to being excessively verbose and I've been watching and (sometimes) correcting myself when I notice I'm being a bit overly passive in voice and waxing extra poetic.
I did have another small complaint that caused some confusion. She uses a lot of pronouns, which can make it confusing as to who is still talking and what the subject is. Give me a name, goshdarnit! Remind me who this he or she is, please!
I'm now working on Pride and Prejudice, a little over halfway through and about a quarter of the way through the whole collection, which includes the aforementioned "Emma" and two or three other titles.
I'm still not sold on this audio book thing, but I did "read" it faster than I would have otherwise, that is for sure!
Anyway! I finished "Sense and Sensibility" and want to make a few notes on it.
My general preference in fiction books leans towards Fantasy, some Sci-Fi, and especially Ray Bradbury (is he not a genre unto himself?). Years ago I did read Jane Austen's "Emma," and I have poked about classic literature and have Grand Plans to make my way through many of the classics and much of the works I somehow avoided in High School. One year Chris got me "To Kill a Mocking Bird," "Where the Red Fern Grows," "The Scarlet Letter," and I'm trying to remember if there was a fourth one or not, but I never read those three in High School and Chris helped remedy that.
ANYWAY! Back to Sense and Sensibility.
If you're looking for something action-packed, this is not it. The two most exciting things are Maryanne spraining her ankle near the beginning and Maryanne getting a nasty cold or flu that makes everyone worry she might die near the end.
What it is, is a study of human character and actions and how the upper middle class of 19th century England intereacted with each other.
I though the ending was a bit of a Deus Ex Machina with Lucy deciding to jilt Edward and run off with his brother, leaving him free to marry Elinor. I thought that Colonel Brian had more of a fatherly interest in Maryanne rather than a romantic one and would have proposed to Elinor instead, but that's me and my sensibilities.
I was amused by the different vehicles mentioned, Phaetons and Gigs and soforth. This would be Greek to many people. I am not super well versed in 19th century carriages and carts, but some of the names were definitely familiar and can conjure up at least a vague image of what they were.
I will note that listening to Jane's writing makes me more prone to being excessively verbose and I've been watching and (sometimes) correcting myself when I notice I'm being a bit overly passive in voice and waxing extra poetic.
I did have another small complaint that caused some confusion. She uses a lot of pronouns, which can make it confusing as to who is still talking and what the subject is. Give me a name, goshdarnit! Remind me who this he or she is, please!
I'm now working on Pride and Prejudice, a little over halfway through and about a quarter of the way through the whole collection, which includes the aforementioned "Emma" and two or three other titles.
I'm still not sold on this audio book thing, but I did "read" it faster than I would have otherwise, that is for sure!