Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

I finished Sense and Sensibility today and I enjoyed it for what it was, a romantic classic novel. You can't really judge a book written to long ago in the same regard you would a modern book. It was a little bit of a slow book to read, but given the language it was written, that was because I had to pay extra attention to the words to understand what was being said. Like other Jane Austen books there were several characters and at times I was confused who was who, and how they were related.

For an older book I was surprised that I was very interested in the story. The two sisters were very difference people and it was interesting to see how each of them reacted differently to similar situations. Elinor was very calm, sensible,considerate, and kept her feelings to herself. While her sister Marianne was emotional, and felt everything deeply. Perhaps even a little childish.

This book shows the danger of being both too open in love and too closed off.

Elinor was the more mature sister, she was the older of the two, but I don't think it was by much. I felt she was more of a mother figure towards Marianne then their own mother was. She was always putting her own feelings aside in order to comfort her sister and take care of her. She put alot of thought into what others would think and how she was being protrayed. The mother was like Marianne and a little flaky in my opinion, although a positive influence. Marianne did redeem her character in my eyes at the end of the book, when she acknowledged her sister's help and apologized for the focus always being on her problems. 

So far I like how in all of Jane Austen's novels she puts a positve light to all those that marry for love. The people who marry for position or money seem to have more of a negitive light and act as the "villans" of her books. Austen is a true romantic and I will at some point finish reading her collection of stories.