Rating: 
Summary: Austen very close to her best.
Review: Sence and Sensibility has neither the clever mystery of Emma or the endearing heroine of Pride and Prejudice. But we all must learn to except that she couldn't top those two novels.
That said Sence and sensibility is worth the read for any Austen fan.The Dashwood sisters various dilemas in love make a good story. We don't care for them as much as our beloved Elisabeth and Jane Bennet, but we wish them the very best all the same.
Marianne's self-sensure near the end of the novel for the indulgence of her self-pitty and the lack of obsevance of common civility (in contrast to her sister)is not quite as satisfying as Emma's repentance.
And sweet sensible Eleanor is just not as witty or charming as Elisabeth. Neither of the girls tempt us with Fanny Prices sweetness or modesty. And none of the love tangles are as interesting, mysterious or hard to figure out as in Emma.
And the villians of the piece just don't match up to Mrs. Norris of Mansfield Park, Miss.Bingley of P+P irritates us more than Lucy Steele.Mr.Dashwoods fraternal neglect doesn't spark the indignation of the Bertrams insensitivity and self involvment.
We find more dissapointment in Henry Crawfords disgrace than in Willoughbys.It's a great novel in it's own right but just not Austen's finest work. Which considering how good a book it is, should be a great compliment to the author.
Rating: 
Summary: D. H. Lawrence was right as well....
Review: ...."thoroughly unpleasant" was how he found Austen's work, "English in the bad, mean, snobbish, sense of the word." I wouldn't go that far, but those stilted paragraphs, those arid drawing-rooms, those aristocratic concerns and conceits (how to redo the parlor? How to arrange for the right guests to see it?) leave me completely exhausted. The superegoic hatred of impulse; the Dickensian pasteboard moralizing; the conservative exaltation of appropriate manners and self-restraint....The only characters I was able to care about in this novel were the villains--or rather, given Austen's sterilized offsetting of taste versus boorishness, call them negative role models. And even they did nothing more dramatic than offering an occasional cold shoulder to the well-bred and undeserving. But then I wonder: perhaps all this is some fantastic satire? Perhaps the pomposity and the Emily Postian fussiness is a deliberate attempt at humor? If so, I'm sorry to say it went above my head. Pride and Prejudice is next; I hope it's a more human work than this one was.
Rating:
Summary: Thoroughly charming and enchanting novel
Review: Perhaps the negatives of Jane Austen is the dated quality of the words she used. But, when one accompanies reading with a dictionary, she becomes a thoroughly charming author. I read Jane Austen first in the 8th grade, and found it difficult to follow, and difficult to understand the humor. After the 10th grade, a student gave a lecture on Irony and Seven Common Uses as Seen in Jane Austen's Three Most Famous Novels. After hearing this, I came to a new appreciation. Not light reading, it is the type of book that can be read over and over, and enjoyed more as the years go by. I finished it for the fourth time three days ago, and still find myself dreaming, writing, and even speaking in the cautious and conscious turn of phrase that Jane Austen can so well suspend. While not a book for a younger generation, it is definitely the kind of book that should and will be read. Not, however, as sintilating as her future novels, and not as humorous as Emma or Pride and Prejudice. A good starting point to get into reading British Literature.
Rating: 
Summary: Critique of the wonderful Sense and Sensibility
Review: Jane Austen's first novel Sense and Sensibility was published in 1811. It wasn't written under her name because she was a female; only men were allowed to publish novels and articles. Only her immediate family knew that Jane Austen wrote the novel. Austen is a romantic writer. In Sense and Sensibility there are two different views of love that you will explore throughout the novel.
In Sense and Sensibility, there are three volumes that make up the novel. In volume I, Mr. Dashwood dies leaving money to his first wife's son John Dashwood. Mrs. Dashwood, Elinor, Marianne, and Margaret have to sell their house and move in with John and his wife Lucy. While in the new town of Barton College Elinor, Marianne, and the men explore the town. Elinor becomes quite fond of Edward Ferrars, Lucy's brother. Lucy does not approve of this relationship because she thinks that the Dashwood women are poor, non-elegant ladies. Marianne is loved by Colonel Brandon, but she doesn't realize it until the end when Willoughby betrays her. The focus of this novel is would you love for sense or sensibility.
The two main characters symbolize sense or sensibility. Elinor represents sense, because she thinks with her head and loves with her heart. Marianne represents sensibility. She acts like a Damsel in distress with her love interest. Mrs. Dashwood and Marianne are very similar in the ways that they deal with everyday life. This novel is not based on the success of sense over sensibility, but rather a combination of the two together.
In this novel, two women fall in love in opposite ways. Everybody has a little of both Marianne and Elinor in them. We tend to want to date the men that every girl dreams of, but we marry for love and long lasting friendships. People in today's society still act the same way about love as Marianne and Elinor do in the novel. Marianne acts like a typical adolescent. She wants to marry the gorgeous young stud, but eventually she realizes that he is a jerk.
The novel shows you two different views on how women, in general, fall in love. Some think with their heads while others think with their hearts. Jane Austen wrote during the romantic period. She wasn't respected as a writer until after her death. Austen was one of the best romantic authors of her time.
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