Sense & Sensibility

Autor: Jane Austen
Nakladatel: Penguin Classics
Rok vydání: 2011
Počet stran: 448

Sense & Sensibility is Jane Austen's first published novel from 1811. It tells a story about the Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne (well, there's also Margaret, but she's a bit too young for the dramas of adulthood), and it's about them falling in love with two different men whose difficult situations are not without resemblance. And so the reader follows Elinor and Marianne experiencing happiness as well as hardships of life and dealing with them in their own ways...

"There is something so amiable in the prejudices of a young mind,

that one is sorry to see them give way to the reception of more general opinions."

The reason why I love reading so much is because I can abandon myself for a little while and just devour a good book with a fair amount of amusing characters with their interesting lifes. I love being able to forget my own afflictions and being connected with the main protagonists of the story throughout their own problems. And this is what I can do so easily with Jane Austen. She pulls me into the story immediately, and I can do nothing else but concentrate on her words and the meaning behind them...

"I wish, as well as everybody else, to be perfectly happy;

but, like everybody else, it must be in my own way."

Sense & Sensibility is my favourite Jane Austen's novel, for I love to read about the family knot that distingushes this particular book from all her others. I think that our siblings, if we are lucky enough to have one, are the most important people in our lives. For our parents certainly won't be here for uf forever, and our relationships aren't always as steady as we would like them to be. Consequently, it's simply great to have someone whom you can count on in the times of need, and vice versa. And Jane Austen really captures the message in this story perfectly. I mean, the Dashwood sisters are not at all alike, but they love each other nonetheless, and they try to understand and even learn from the other, even if it's not always that easy. Whenever I read Sense & Sensibility, I always find myself in Elinor and am trying to draw some romanticism from Marianne to overcome my cynicism that I have charged throughout the recent years. I love this book entirely. I feel like it speaks right from my heart, you know. There's something extremely familiar about the story that it feels like home when I am reading it. And this feeling increases with every re-reading. I have only a few books which I think are worth to read again, Sense & Sensibility is definitely one of them...

"Money can only give happiness where there is nothing else to give it."

Jane Austen's writing style surely needs some time to get used to at the beginning, but trust me, once you get into it, she won't let you go. I personaly find it very difficult to put her books down when it's time to go to sleep. I love her words thoroughly. She plays with them in such a way you wouldn't think possible, but it actually works perfectly well. It astonishes me every time. I Also love when author leaves some room for my own imagination. I don't like to go through every detail of every action if it's not necessary for the plot line. And Jane Austen really knows the subtle balance between saying too much or too little. But except of her being an incredibly talented writer, she's also one of the best storytellers ever. I know that there might be some people who wouldn't agree with me, which is totally fine. (As to quote Jane Austen, I would say: "One man's ways may be as good as another's, but we all like our own best.") But I myself genuinely think her stories amazingly fabricated. Every little thing in her novels is precisely studied, nothing is happening without meaning. Some of the details you wouldn't even be able to see at the first time (that's exactly why one should re-read her books). And that's what makes her a genius in my eyes...

Rating: 5/5