Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen: reading reflection
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen Jane Austen loves to gossip. And I love that for her. And I also love it for classic literature, that we've canonized a book that comes through with a gasping, can you believe this happened? tone. Like she's clamoring over herself to get to the next wild twist in the story of these two sisters and their complicated romantic entanglements. Once you strip away the regency language, this is just some lady telling you about the romantic pitfalls of two girls and some wildly audacious men. I haven't read Pride and Prejudice in almost a decade (and have been meaning to read more Austen ever since), but in my recollection, it's a much more buttoned up narrative, much more shaped, and while still voicey, more precisely contained. I like both modes, but I'm not surprised Sense and Sensibility was her first novel. I always find it funny that Austen, in some circles, is held up as a precursor to modern romance novelists, that i...