This volume offers a selection of important contemporary criticism on two of Jane Austen's most popular and widely-studied novels, Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice. The volume includes recent essays from Alastair Duckworth, Marilyn Butler, D.A. Miller, Isobel Armstrong and Karen Newman.
As one of several Xmas presents to myself, I was going to reread Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Then I saw Sense and Sensibilty on the shelf next to it, and I thought, "I'll read this first to gear up of P & P." I honestly can't remember whether I'd read this in an earlier life of not. It started a little slow, but there so much set up to make the later scenes resonate that I can see it was necessary. And once the set up was accomplished, the novel moves with classic Austen satire. There's a great scene in when she visits a jeweler and describes an arrogant man picking out a toothpick case that makes me almost sure she had witnessed just such a moment one day and went straight home to write it up for her novel. All this is build up for anoher Xmas present I'm giving to myself...watching the movie Becoming Jane.
Not sure how I missed Austen -- maybe the choice of a modern novel class in college -- but I've made up for that omission later in life. Both of these were gems. You'd never know Austen was a self-taught writer who never went much of anywhere. She's a keen observer of polite and impolite society, and her wit is reflected on nearly every page. That being said, I got a bit weary of the genre and haven't been tempted to read Austen's four other books. (Nor have I seen any of the movies/miniseries.)
I tried but I couldn't get through this book. It was a good story about 3 sisters, Elinor, Marianne, and Margaret and their quest to find a husband which apparently was the only thing that mattered back then. But the 19th century prose was very hard to get through. I got tired of rereading paragraphs trying to figure out what she was talking about. Plus nothing happened in the book. I would finish chapters in which the plot was not advanced and literally nothing happened. I decided instead to watch the movie.
Currently sludging my way through this one again. This and Emma are my two most unloved books by J.A.--although Emma wins the prize for "books I really don't like."
I keep reading this hoping it will win me over like her other works, but it isn't looking good so far.
I really enjoyed S&S. I hadn't read it before. Much more depth than some of her other books. P&P was good. I'd read it before. The suspense was fun as always.