50 books to read before you die discussion

Our group read for April 2017 from our open nominations is Sense and Sensibility

I must admit that Sense and Sensibility is one of my least favourite Austen's after Emma. It actually took me two attempts to read it. It's Marianne that bothers me the most, I was just never convinced by her character development, it always bugged me. I did like the story overall and the other characters but for me there is just something lacking.

I liked the contrast between the stoic Elinor and the emotional Marianne. And the strong connection between the Dashwood women. And the happy ending for Elinor who is now one of my favourite female characters.
Austen poking fun at high society and prejudices against women was pretty good as expected.
I actually listened to an audio version, maybe that is why I did not feel it too slow going (in contrast with Mansfield Park which was really really slow)
Devonshire sounds beautiful.

Here we are in the last week of the month and only Kayleigh and Annie have contributed to this discussion. I'm not a Jane Austen fan, for which I am sometimes rebuffed, and I don't plan to read Sense and Sensibility. (Who knows - I may yet read it someday.)

Where are all the Janites out there?

Few month ago I got an interesting opinion:

My God, what is wrong with these stupid women that they keep falling in love with depressed, angry, brooding men! ...

I didn't read Sense and Sensibility this month but I have read it before so I thought I'd leave my thoughts here. When I read it last year I enjoyed it but mostly because of Austen's writing not the plot or characters. I did love Elinor, she didn't want to burden anyone else with her heartbreak and Marianne assumed she was cold-hearted and emotionless. Definitely not true.

Here are some spoiler-y thoughts copied from my review: (view spoiler)[ Willoughby was an idiot and a bit of a stalker (quote; "I watched you all out of the house one morning [...] You would be surprised to hear how often I watched you") so I'm glad he didn't end up with anyone. Lucy was always a little annoying but I was not expecting her to just leave Edward - what a shocker! I didn't particularly like Edward and his proposal to Elinor was very sudden, it felt to me like he was just so relieved/upset that Lucy dumped him he went on the immediate rebound. Not the most romantic thing I've ever read and I can't see their relationship lasting. Throughout the book there wasn't one main storyline, every thing was dragged out and then all rushed to finish in the end. (hide spoiler)]

I studied this book for a course as well as just reading it for pleasure. We looked at the theme of heartbreak, how people cope with it, whether Austen sits on one side of the sense vs sensibility debate and which of the sisters we identified more with. At first glance you might assume Elinor is 'Sense' and Marianne is 'Sensibility' but it's more complicated than that. Jane Austen shows different sides to all her characters, I love how real the people in her stories always are. They don't fit into neat little boxes or can be described in one word. They're complicated people with emotions and problems, strengths and weaknesses.

It was interesting to me that multiple people on the course talked about relating to Marianne when they were young but as they grew up and experienced more heartbreak they related more to Elinor. I love how people get different things from reading the same book with different perspectives.