Rating: 
Summary: A Classic Romance
Review: I am not saying that Sense and Sensibility is not a great classic book all I am saying is that when I read it I got bored it was a little slow of a book for me and just did not pull me into the charactors lives. I know that for Jane Austen's time period her books such as Pride and Predjudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma, and Persuasion were pretty racy but nowadays we can appreciate these books if teachers made them appeal to us give the students a real life scenario that they could put the charactors in then the students would get into the book a lot easier. I would reccomend this book to English Teachers and Proffesers to have their students read it will teach them the value of a classic book and that there are great books that were inspired by classic books such as this. I hope that this review has helped you in making a decision about this book!
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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.
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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.
Rating:
Summary: Mark Twain was right, I'm afraid
Review: I so much wanted to like Jane Austen and, specifically, this book. That's because I dearly loved the movie "Sense and Sensibility" directed by Ang Lee with an amazingly good screenplay by Emma Thompson. Now that I've attempted to read the book on which it was based, I'm all the more impressed by Emma Thompson because she extracted the story from this novel and told it via dialog and made it interesting, engaging and charming. So I have to credit Jane Austen, at least, with having invented the characters and their situation. I've heard she was an astute observer of human beings and apparently she was. But her style! Reading Jane Austen was for me like swimming through half-set concrete. Mark Twain made two obsevations about Jane Austen. First, he wrote in "Remembered Yesterdays": "Jane Austen? Why I go so far as to say that any library is a good library that does not contain a volume by Jane Austen. Even if it contains no other book." Second, in a letter to his good friend William Howells, he wrote in response to remarks Howells had made about Edgar Allan Poe: "To me his [Poe's] prose is unreadable -- like Jane Austin's [sic]. No -- there is a difference. I could read his prose on salary, but not Jane's. Jane is entirely impossible. It seems a great pity that they allowed her to die a natural death." I find Twain's prose eminently readable and agree with him about Jane Austen. I can't read her prose and I couldn't even do it if I were paid to do it. I greatly admire those who can read Jane Austen. You are credited with great patience and intelligence. I'm not stupid, but my patience is utterly insufficient to the rigors of Jane's verbiage. I simply have to have sentences of prose that hold my interest and make me want to read the next sentence and the next and the next until the book is done. If after reading several sentences, I feel as though I've just endured a lengthy session of reconstructive dentistry, I simply have to put the book down. There are thousands of authors whose storytelling style is as engaging as the story itself. It's probably not Jane's fault -- she was a product of her time and place and that's how they wrote back then. But I understand completely Twain's hyperbole that she shouldn't have been allowed to die a natural death.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Book, for it's time
Review: This book is an excellent way to see how English society ran hundreds of years ago. The only issue that people will have with the book is that it is written in an older style of English which can be hard to follow.
Rating:
Summary: With Passion & Reason I Give 5 Stars To Sense & Sensibility!
Review: Jane Austin is one of my favorite authors. I think that "Persuasion" is her best novel, with both "Sense And Sensibility" and "Pride And Prejudice" tied for second place. "Sense And Sensibility" is an absolutely wonderful book, capturing beautifully the English Regency period's mores, manners, and lifestyles. The central theme deals with the extreme differences in temperaments between two sisters, and the eventual reconciliation and moderation of both their characters and temperaments. Marianne Dashwood is a passionate young woman, with a definite inclination toward the humanities: art, music and literature. Her heart rules her head, more often than not, and she has a very spontaneous nature. Elinor Dashwood, the older of the two sisters, is much more practical and sensible. While Elinor appreciates the music and literature that her sibling so passionately loves, she definitely thinks things through before making decisions, or taking action, and keeps her personal feelings to herself. She feels tremendous responsibility for her family's well-being. Elinor does have a wonderful, dry sense of humor, and her witty comments enhance the novel. Throughout most of the narrative, Marianne believes that Elinor, whom she dearly loves, is too cold, and restrained - more concerned with propriety than with feelings. She is obviously judgmental concerning Elinor's reticence to freely express her emotions, and she also pities Elinor, for her perceived inadequacies. Elinor, on the other hand, is concerned about Marianne's open and guileless behavior. She fears her sister will be hurt by indulging in her strong emotions, and that conventional society will condemn her for this attribute. The story opens with the death of Elinor and Marianne's father. He, unavoidably, has left them, along with their mother, (his second wife), and younger sister with little money. They are forced to leave their home, the Norland estate, and move to Barton Cottage, close to a distant relative's estate. Norland and all its treasures have been left to Dashwood's son, by his first wife. The four women have been left on their own, to pursue life, love, and loss in their different manners. Both Elinor and Marianne fall deeply in love, while at Barton, and each, in turn, are disappointed by their choices. These devastating losses, plus their adjustments to an entirely different lifestyle, serve to modify their temperaments and change their lives. "Sense And Sensibility" is a deeply moving novel, with biting satire, especially demonstrated in the characters of Fanny and John Dashwood, and Lucy Steele; and of course Elinor's fine wit adds much to make the reader smile. Ms. Austin's writing is pure elegance. Her female characters are well developed, including those in minor roles. The men, particularly John Willoughby, Edward Ferrars, and Colonel Brandon are very different in nature, and not at all stereotypical. I loved the scenes at Barton Cottage with Marianne and Willoughby, and with Willoughby and the Dashwood family. I also really enjoyed the visit to London and the tragic ball scene. I found myself laughing and crying while reading this book. So with all the discussion about moderation and passion, Jane Austin, once again, brought out the gamut of emotions in me. I cannot recommend this delightful novel highly enough!
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Summary: Spellbinding for my sense and sensibility.
Review: "Sense and Sensibility" was the first Jane Austen novel to achieve publication. Its reception was just sufficient to open the way for the publication of more of her novels, and the next to be published was "Pride and Prejudice". It has been a matter of speculation ever since whether, if nothing other than "Sense and Sensibility" had been published, Jane Austen would be remembered today. Those who believe this novel would not have sustained her reputation offer several reasons. They cite a lack of comic characters, a lack of male characters who excite interest or stimulate the imagination, an overabundance of unmemorable minor characters, and prose that is sometimes too heavily overworked. Those who believe this novel could alone preserve Jane Austen's fame produce different arguments. They cite the depiction of the two sisters Elinor and Marianne and their approximation to the concepts of sense and sensibility, the famous passage near the beginning in which the wife of John Dashwood, the sisters' half brother, pares down the deathbed promise her husband made to his father to provide financial support to John's half-sisters, and to Jane Austen's detached but involved, good-humored but stern narrative stance. Having re-read the novel recently for the umpteenth time, I could see the merit in all these arguments. Nevertheless the reading experience held me enthralled. Accounting for this is difficult. I read hundreds of pages in which women talk about men. I read of a world where every quality, every characteristic, every manner is put in little boxes, clearly labeled, and arranged in order from desirable to base. These things do not usually appeal to me. Ultimately, I believe it is Jane Austen the storyteller that casts the spell. My sense and sensibility are alike spellbound. Readers who like to refer to film or television adaptations to help their reading of the classics, will benefit from seeing a 1995 version of "Sense and Sensibility" adapted, scripted and starring the English actress Emma Thompson.
Rating:
Summary: Not Bad, But It's No Pride and Prejudice
Review: While a quick review of any NYT book review will make clear the many ways to evaluate the worth of a book, I've found that, with novels, 80% of my assessment can be delivered by answering two simple questions: 1) did I consistently desire to turn the page; i.e., did the narrative flow unremittingly retain my interest and curiosity, and 2) did the ending leave me with both the ethereal wish for the story to continue in perpetuity and lacking that, the more prosaic desire to immediately read it again. I recently read Pride and Prejudice and, having answered both questions with a resounding "yes," expected more of the same with Sense and Sensibility. Unfortunately and very unexpectedly, I was disappointed. The book was successful in holding my interest but in a far from fervent way. Rather than caring deeply for the characters and anxiously awaiting the unfolding of their fates, my curiosity was clinical in nature, wondering at the outcome without particularly strong partisanship. Compared to the convincingly developed, full-bodied relationships between Elizabeth and Darcy and Jane and Wickham in P&P, those of Elinor and Edward and Marianne and Colonel Brandon come off as shallow, cold and flimsy. To be fair, the ill-fated love of Marianne and Willoughby is carefully developed and generates sympathy. However, the lack of substance behind the Elinor/Edward connection and the lack of credibility supporting the Marianne/Colonel Brandon match left the book's ending with a flatness that far from inspired the desire for a continuance. The other missing factor that really set P&P apart was the wry humor of Mr. Bennett. While S&S is not without similar elements, they are primarily limited to comments of the narrator and lose the effect of being embedded within the dialogue of the primary characters. Is summary, this is not a book that you will put down with disinterest before finishing but is also not a work that will leave you exhilarated by the experience. I give it 3 stars.
Rating:
Summary: "Slowly & Surely"
Review: The truth is...I cannot esteem it as well as I should like. It can't be explained in entirety, but I find the novel noticeably lack-luster after reading Austen's other outstanding novels. A plethora of secondary characters and sub-plots choke out a lot of the brilliance of its main characters. This is a rather surprising realization for me, being an avid Austen fan - but it is spoken with all honesty. Nevertheless, even though it is not Austen's best written work, it is still a very amiable novel and a nice light read for any classics buff.
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Summary: Traitorous
Review: I almost feel a sense of betrayal as an English major, and with all the glowing remarks about this book. The ten chapters that I read were complete drivel. I had hoped, that with some perseverence, I could finish and maybe it would get interesting; however, even cheating with Cliffs Notes to find a plot line (it has stimulated my interest in books before), I couldn't bring myself to read any more. This is the very first time I have not completed a book. Getting through the first and third chapters are mildly irritating because they deal mainly with family relaionships with the same last name and a lack of identifying characteristics. When I finally picked up a plot line, it was boring and circuitous. I just found nothing that I could identify with, partly because of the flowery language that obscures all meaning, and also because I find I require a bit more in my stories than this provides. I almost feel guilty for setting the book down, but there's no professor quizzing me on it, and I have other books I am looking forward to reading more. Judging by the other reviewers' comments, it's worth trying to read, but I, personally, don't see where the reverence for Jane Austen's writing is validated.
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