Sense and Sensibility (Easy Classics)

Written by Jane Austen and Gemma Barder

Narrated by Charlie Sanderson

An adapted and illustrated edition of Jane Austen's romantic classic - at an easy-to-read level for all ages!
Elinor and Marianne Dashwood have very different ideas about love. Marianne wants to be swept off her feet. Her sensible sister Elinor's feet are always firmly on the ground. But when their father dies and they are forced to move to a new home, will there even be room for love at all?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sweet Cherry Publishing
• Release date: Jul 23, 2020
• ISBN: 9781782266129

Jane Austen

Jane Austen (1775–1817) was an English novelist whose work centred on social commentary and realism. Her works of romantic fiction are set among the landed gentry, and she is one of the most widely read writers in English literature.

Reviews for Sense and Sensibility (Easy Classics)

[judygibson-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I don't remember how I rated Pride and Prejudice but I enjoyed the cutting social commentary just as entertaining in this one. Characterization was a little less smooth but the action still fun to follow.

[bookworm12_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

 I saw this performed this summer and fell in love with the smart choices and beautiful production. It was a pleasure to read the adapted play. The added scenes between Elinor and Edward spark with chemistry. The little sister, Margaret, is fleshed out and I love the depth her naturalist tendencies add to the story. A brilliant stage adaptation for anyone who loves the original novel.

[cecrow · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

For a novel that is two hundred years old, it hasn't lost its shine. Granted, I'd introduce the central characters more clearly at the start and update some of the language (probable reasons why practical jokers who submit it to publishers today find the manuscript rejected), but it all moves right along. Mr. and Mrs. Palmer are standouts, such a hilarious couple - her silliness and his grumpiness - I could read their dialogue all day, and I've certainly seen echoes of it in other works that came after.I'm on the 'sense' side of the divide, personality-wise, but even I have to admit it's Elinor's behaviour that has fallen by the wayside in the two centuries since. What sister now who cared for her sibling's welfare would only apply for her mother to inquire what was wrong? Or not share that she too was experiencing a similar disappointment, so they might commiserate, instead of feeling bound by promise to a stranger? I also have a melancholy feeling about Marianne's harnessing of her sensibility, and her being surprisingly denied a fairy-tale ending (however much Austen tries to dress up the one she assigns while moralizing.) To me it sounds like all the wind has gone out of her sails, a woman surrendering her life's pleasures to a nunnery. This is the template that Thakeray so blatantly defied with Becky Sharp a few decades later.

[tuusannuuska-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I have finally decided to take the plunge and start slogging through the classics. Reviewing a classic as someone who reads for pleasure more than anything else feels a little daunting, though. Do I try to to be critical and analytical or do I review this as I would any other book? No idea.

First things first: I read romance books for the emotional impact. Like word candy for my brain. Reading a book about two sisters trying deseprately to procure good husbands because that is the be-all and end-all of any woman's existence is a little like eating rasins when you have a hankering for chocolate. Sure, they're both sweet, and sure the raisins are probably a lot better for you than the chocolate would have been. But a bunch of puny raisins will never fool my brain into believing I'm actually eating chocolate; no oxytocin or endorphins for me, oh no, only sticky teeth!

I did like the flowery writing more than I would have in a contemporary work, though, because the more convoluted a turn of phrase, the more aesthetic the writer, at the time. And it's never complex as such, so the story itself was easy enough to stay on top of. If only I'd given a single doo doo for which man which sister ended up with.

If I were to review this as a critical thinker who took into consideration the time period in which this was written, or had an appreciation for the language used, or cared about marriage games in general, I would probably hold this in high regard. Then again, if I were to review this as myself, a rather escapist reader who just wants to enjoy herself with a good book, or at least to be given some serious food for thought, I would have to say I was intensely bored throughout the story. Especially the first half was painful to get through.

However, I will persevere and move on to the next Austen. At some point. But not straight away.

[lvstrongpuff · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

OH I just love this book the second time around. The Colonel just blows me away in this book. He really is an amazing character

[castlelass · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Story of two sisters of different temperaments. Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, their younger sister and mother, are forced to relocate when their father dies, and his estate passes to their half-brother. They become interested in men who are either not available or not responsible. Elinor “possessed a strength of understanding, and coolness of judgment, which qualified her, though only nineteen, to be the counsellor of her mother.” Marianne “was sensible and clever; but eager in everything; her sorrows, her joys, could have no moderation. She was generous, amiable, interesting: she was everything but prudent.”

Published in 1811, it is Jane Austen’s first novel and reflects social mores related to money, inheritance, and social classes of the time period. It is a story of overcoming obstacles and disappointments. It is also a comedy of manners, though the humor is subtle. The prose is elaborate and circuitous, as is typical of the era, so it requires a bit of patience to get through it. It contains love triangles, misunderstandings, and drama. I tend to enjoy reading the classics and found this a pleasant reading experience.

[csaavedra_894108 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

At times the excessive attention to the subject of matches between idle rentist families of 19th century Britain makes this book pretty monotonous. Prose is pretty wonderful though, and towards the end the story becomes a bit more captivating. It's going to be a while before I read Austen again.

[sriddell_8 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Wonderfully written - and absolutely ridiculous "manners" romance.

Glad I read it, but I preferred Pride and Prejudice.

[sjgirl-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Worth the re-read though still not my favorite Jane Austen. I do love these sisters and their bond even if I’m not particularly a fan of their romantic options, this is one of those occasions where spinsterhood would have felt like a happier ending.The pacing of this one is a struggle for me at times, not caring for the men definitely contributed to that since much of the story involves pining and heartbreak over unworthy guys and the lengthy chunks of speculation and explanations didn’t help either, it frequently feels more like it’s recapping events rather than being in the moment, which is maybe remnants of when Sense and Sensibility was originally conceived to be an epistolary novel? Where this shines most is in its two heroines, their dimensional personalities, the way the title qualities apply to each of them to some degree and the fascinating differences in how each handles feeling jilted.

[edwinbcn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I tremendously enjoyed reading Jane Austen's Sense and sensibility. For once I wished I could close off all knowledge about Austen and her time, and hadn't read the critical introduction by Tony Tanner. This is really a story to enjoy without all the academic knowledge lurking around. On the other hand, Austen's style paired with all that knowledge makes for supremely sublime reading.

[nosborm · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

So I started off thinking this book was meh, but once I got over the slump of the first 100 pages I (surprisingly) really enjoyed it. Keeping track of names and relations was a bit tricky at times (but no harder and actually a bit easier than Game of Thrones). Knowing that unmarried people are Miss and married people are Mrs is important was well as her use of the younger before someone's name if they are the younger sister. I enjoyed this book so much I was trying to guess the ending before I even got there and I was wrong how it turned out (but thoroughly enjoyed it nonetheless). It seems that I just needed to approach this book with the right frame of mind. I plan on reading something by Austen next, probably Pride and Prejudice. My only question is whether Thomas was supposed to be a slave? It wasn't made clear in the books but from the way Austen portrays him I think that is what she is getting at.

[cyderry · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This classic novel by Jane Austen is the tale of the Dashwood family and how the daughters, Elinor and Marianne, embody the Common sense (Sense) and emotion (Sensibility) in each of the sisters. The death of their father which leaves them homeless (he left their home to their half brother, John), is made more difficult when John's wife convinces him that the sisters don't need him to supplement their income even though John had promised his father that he would take care of his sisters. Each sister has to embrace the quality of the other sister to find their happiness.I'm not a fan of this book. It seem to be very preachy and the characters of Elinor and Marianne very 2 dimensional. But I can check it off my ist of unread classics.

[comfypants · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Two sisters have romantic troubles.3/4 (Good)It's enjoyable. These are great heroines, although one of them starts the novel as a pretty awful person (before her eventual strong development arc). And there's always enough going on that it doesn't get boring for long.But it doesn't have the emotional resonance that I got from the other Austen novels I've read (Persuasion, which is overall not as good as this, and Pride & Prejudice, which is better in every way). The plot is concerned with the difficulties of the sisters in getting the men they love, while their actual falling in love is simply told to us.And there is an unreasonable amount of "comedy" (which, unlike Pride & Prejudice, is rarely actually funny). About 90% of the characters are Silly Characters, and many of them are carbon copies of each other. I'd say the book spends more time with satire than romance.(Jul. 2021)

[amzzz_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

My interest in this waxed and waned. I found myself getting a little confused between the two girls and their suitors, but it was an enjoyable read (listen) nonetheless.

[beauxarts79 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Austen's wit, sense of irony, and clarity about human personality never fail to impress. Any minor complaint I might have about this novel can almost certainly be attributed to my having been biased by the film adaptation.

[drfuriosa · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Honestly, this may not be Austen's best, but it gave me all the delight I needed, as well as a lot to consider with keeping the balance between raw emotion and overly controlled reason. Plus, no one writes vulgar characters better. Fanny Dashwood, Lucy Steele, and Robert Ferrars are deliciously gross and fun to hate on. Also, I genuinely love Mrs. Jennings.

[stillatim · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Less funny and more tiresome than I remember it, which makes me very sad. I have clearly become a worse person since I read this in my mid-twenties.

[john257hopper · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is my first reading of this novel which is one of the two most famous of Austen's novels, along with Pride and Prejudice (which I have not managed to finish, though I will try it again some time). This is the story of the lives and loves of the Dashwood sisters, Marian and Elinor and, while I enjoyed the first half, my interest tailed off in the middle, and only resumed slightly further towards the end. While I hugely admire Austen's clever use of language and her place as one of the giants of English literature is fully deserved, those of her novels I most enjoy are Northanger Abbey as a pastiche of the Gothic horror genre, Mansfield Park for its more unusual characters and scenarios and Persuasion for its setting in Bath and Lyme Regis, two towns I love.

[allandanybooks · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Jane Austen will always be a legendary writer. I've always known her work, Pride & Prejudice, and it will always be my favourite one but Sense and Sensibility didn't disappoint in the least. It so amazing to be able to read these works from the 1800s and to be able to see what it was really like to be a woman in those years. I love how Austen can make the characters so real that, at least for me, it was like I was reading the life story of a family member. I wished all the best for Elinor and Marianne and I almost cried when I got to the end and got to know how they story ended. Jane Austen's works are stories of real living in the 1800s and it totally shows how hard it was to be the woman everybody expected you to be. I cannot wait to get my hands on other books by Jane Austen and I'm sure that I will enjoy them as much as I did this one and Pride & Prejudice.

[spiralsheep · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

93/2020. Not as laugh aloud farcically amusing as P&P but the denouement does include several of the bitchiest lines Austen ever published, including this gem about Edward Ferrars: "[...] after experiencing the blessings of *one* imprudent engagement, contracted without his mother's consent, as he had already done for more than four years, nothing less could be expected of him in the failure of *that*, than the immediate contraction of another."Interestingly, I have far more sympathy for Marianne now than when I eye-rolled my way through reading S&S as a set book as a teenager at school. With the hindsight of age and experience I've also realised that Elinor isn't nearly as sensible as she thinks she is. However, I always knew that Colonel Brandon > Edward Ferrars. And why wasn't there a Mrs Jennings in my life when I was a teenager? I would've appreciated her far more than Elinor or Marianne did!Reading notes"probabilities and proofs" sound like a missing Blackadder the Third episode about maths. Why isn't there a maths themed romance novel with this title? I'd read it!Lol 1: "His temper might perhaps be a little soured by finding, like many others of his sex, that through some unaccountable bias in favour of beauty, he was the husband of a very silly woman, - but she knew that this kind of blunder was too common for any sensible man to be lastingly hurt by it."Lol 2: "Well, it is the oddest thing to me, that a man should use such a pretty girl so ill! But when there is plenty of money on one side, and next to none on the other, Lord bless you! they care no more about such things!"I still find Edward's wanton scissor-destruction both distressing and offensive. What a spoiled brat he is! (At least they weren't embroidery scissors.)

[scottcholstad · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

My absolute favorite Austen novel! Yet somehow it's typically been overlooked for other, more famous, novels of hers, including in the classroom, which I think is a shame. This is a delightful work, and it is both representative of that era and shows off her talent quite well, IMO. If you've read anything of hers, but not this, and if you like any of it, please try this one out! Recommended.

[deltaqueen50 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Sense and Sensibility is Jane Austin’s first published novel. It is an enjoyable novel of manners and romance concerning two sisters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood. The sisters encounter many obstacles on their path to true love. Elinor, the older of the sisters, is ruled by sense, she is not given to shows of emotion, Marianne, on the other hand, thrives on her emotions and grand dramatic expressions.As the book is told mostly through Elinor’s perspective and we are privy to her innermost thoughts, I found her the more sympathetic of the two sisters. Marianne grew on me as she went through heartbreak and illness, maturing into a stronger, less selfish person. The caring relationship between the two sisters was a highlight of the book. Both sisters’ romantic prospects take numerous twists and turns as the girls navigate a society where marriage is the goal and money and manners can hide a person’s true nature. As with all Jane Austen’s works there is a lot to absorb. The book is full of well drawn, descriptive characters who flesh out the story and the time period. The author’s subtle wit and wordy eloquence deliver a charming story that certainly stands the test of time.

[basilsbooks · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Every time I read a Jane Austen book I think I love it more and more. Sense & Sensibility keeps growing into my favorite. This time around I tried to really focus on the characters and I think that is why I fell so much more in love with her work.

[zeborah · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

John Dashwood is a terrible person: I thought it would be impossible to hate him more and then he starts casually enclosing the commons. Also no I will never forgive Willoughby.Having re-read this straight after re-watching the movie (with Emma Thompson) it startled me that the afterword noted that Marianne doesn't marry for love. I had to go back to the last pages and sure enough, only gratitude, respect (and £2000 a year). So Elinor marries for love and Marianne out of common sense. :-)

[ritaer_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The quiet pleasure of a rereading of a well-known work.

[alanteder · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Review of the Audible Audio edition narrated by Rosamund PikeI'm not the audience for Jane Austen, but as this was offered in an Audible Daily Deal it was an easy pick to cross off my 1001 Books list and to try to hear what all the fuss is about.This isn't an ideal book for long travel commutes as I found my mind wandering constantly and it would only snap back to attention when Pike affected an especially entertaining upper-class voice for Mrs. Jennings or during the drama of the confrontations between Elinor and Willoughby. The scoundrel Willoughby was probably the only character of any dramatic interest.One main distraction was my constantly thinking about how these people knew each other's incomes on an annual basis? It seemed like a regular refrain throughout but the source of the information is never discussed. It is almost as if there was some sort of public domain registry for this sort of information. I began to wonder if there is any sort of annotated Jane Austen that explains these sorts of cultural nuances that will become even more inexplicable as the years pass.These are only reactions based on listening to an audio version under less than ideal circumstances. I should still try to give it a read in hardcopy format.

[wordsampersand · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

3.75 stars. This feels like a trial-run for later books.

[griffin22 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Love this book! The quartet of Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma, and Persuasion are up there with my all-time favourite books of any age or genre. And the movie was good too, although I always find Emma Thompson in a young romantic role quite jarring - she always looks too old for the part (here a 36 year old playing a 19 year old).

[jguidry-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed reading about the romantic entanglements of the two sisters. I also enjoyed reading about their interactions with other characters. But, I mostly enjoyed reading about the relationship between the two sisters. They stuck by each other no matter what, and I enjoyed their story.

[benuathanasia · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

If you're a fan of Lydia and Kitty from Pride and Prejudice, you'll probably enjoy this book. It was largely about silly little nits trying to get married. It was amusing, but not nearly as good as P&P.