Sense & Sensibility (Jane Austen)

Summary:
Set in roughly the 1860's-ish, the book follows the love lives (or lack thereof) of the Miss Dashwoods. Elinor, the eldest girl of the family, is the sensible type, who falls for a man who may have other engagements. Marianne, the middle sister, falls deeply for a scoundrel who plays with her affections and brings her to all sorts of illness. Margaret, the youngest, is seen for about 20 pages throughout the whole book... And that's a generous estimate. No one cares about her until page 323. Yeah.

Thoughts:
Wow, that dragged like nothing I've read in a very long time.

A couple of years ago, I read Pride and Prejudice, and loved it. It was a little slow going at first, but once you got to the meat of the story, it was great. I laughed along with it, and loved the whole thing. It made me want to read more Austen. I have always heard that S&S was a great novel, and I should absolutely read it! I started it a little while after I finished P&P because I though it would be just as good, but couldn't get into it like I did P&P. I set it back down to be ignored for a long time.

When I finally picked it up again last month, I found myself regularly falling asleep to it instead of enjoying it like I should. It's slow going, and I found myself wanting to hit someone over the stupidity of the men in the book. Edward's hidden engagement. Willoughby's inconstancy (for lack of a better word). Colonel Brandon's wimpiness. And John Dashwood is an ass. I hated Lucy, and that she gets the best treatment by the end of the book, even after what she does? Ugh.

It's one of those books that people should read for the sole purpose of being able to sound intelligent when they get around to a discussion of literature, as it's a classic, and it's Austen. But so far, between the two, I love P&P far more than this.

Pages: 323
Genre: Classic Literature
Grade: C+
Would I Read Again?: Doubtful.

2 down, 48 to go? And it's already February?? Yikes!

As for my next reading adventures, I've got a few possibilities, mostly unknown stuff. I have a fondness for wandering around Barnes and Noble and reading book jackets in order to find something new and different, so that I might actually like it, and be able to find more from the same author. I picked up a Cabot book on my last trip (If you have checked out the book lists from the last few years, you can tell how much I love me some Meg.) and I have a book by Maureen Johnson, who I've read a couple books of, and whose writing I loved. We'll see how those go...