An Introvert's World of Books discussion

I read so many good things about Jane Austen and her novels so I decided to give it a try. I read about 10 pages of Sense and Sensibility and it took me 30 minutes trying to decipher the English. That just put me off so much that I gave up. Is there a trick to reading her books? I asked my wife and she said it's old English and shouldn't be put off by it. She said think of reading Shakespeare and how hard that is.

I struggle with the same thing. I was thinking to watch the movie to understand the story and then read it to see if that helps me get into the literary world.