Starting this book was a beginning of a relationship I had a feeling would not work out. Despite that, I had to read it all the way through.
There was not much of an expectation when I began reading this book. It may sound contradictory to my first sentence, but it is the truth. I loved Pride and Prejudice; however, I read it in an unabridged children’s edition. That gave it a more palatable sense in terms of being a little complicated to digest.
It is true that I like reading classical literature every now and again yet it is also true that my mind is not, in any way, shape, or form, used to the modern English writing. Is that not curious?
The beginning of the story was rather interesting. I was caught in the engaging conversations between the character and Austen’s prowess in introducing us with her cast using her outstanding linguistic capabilities. What caught me off guard was how everyone basically goes by the same name — each of them being addressed by their last names.
As much as this is not much of a trouble with greater focus and attention to the story (or, perhaps, if you are quite used to reading in this manner of writing), I find that it was quite outside of my liking at the moment when I read it. I wanted something that I was going to go through with relative ease and comfort.
It might be that one reason why I decided to read Sense and Sensibility despite my desire for “ease and comfort” was because I hoped for a book that will come across as resembling with Pride and Prejudice when I read it in a more accessible writing.
“I would not wish to do anything mean. One had rather, on such occasions, do too much than too little. No one, at least, can think I have not done enough for them: even themselves, they can hardly expect more.”
In getting through the book, it dawned on me that, past 20%, the book begins to take on a painfully slow turn. The beauty of this is that it initiates a deeper dive on getting to know the characters. Which, to my surprise, did not click well with me.
I loathe all of the characters in this story! Yes, they were real: they felt their emotions, struggled through it, acknowledged that there’s something they can do about it, accepted the challenge, and had a great 180 and improved. Such a wonderful character development; yet it didn’t change the fact that it was the gruesome entirety of the book.
Reaching between 80% to 90% of the story, I began to enjoy it again. I saw how the difficulties the characters faced changed them. It was an impressive show of human emotions and their capacity for acceptance and willingness to change. However, I only liked one character in this story and he was, perhaps, the saving grace. And still, he didn’t even get as much attention as I would like.
In the end, I was quite disappointed with how the story ended. In deliberating whether I liked it or not, I’d say that I did not. Despite my epiphany to the beauty of the story, its overall appeal to me wasn’t very good. Would I recommend people reading it? My answer will highly depend on what you normally read. If you want to dabble on classical works, I believe that there are shorter stories than you can try before this one. If you’re really curious to try this, be aware that come a certain page this book is a slug — and if you’re not ready for that… then take heed.
