Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

Title:  Sense and Sensibility

Author: Jane Austen

Read by:  Alison Larkin

Publisher: Alison Larkin Presents

Length: Approximately 14 hours and 02 minutes

Source: Purchased on Amazon.com 

I love Jane Austen novels.  I’m not going to detail the plot of this novel as I have summarized it on my blog before (see this link and this link).  I reread Sense and Sensibility this time around by listening to an audiobook narrated by Alison Larkin.  I have discovered that I LOVE listening to Austen on audio.  It really brings the story alive and makes me think of Jane reading these stories to her family.  Alison Larkin is a great narrator with a pleasing voice.  She has a light British accent, and she makes the characters come alive.

I read Sense and Sensibility this month as part of the JASNA (Jane Austen Society of North America) Northwoods Book Club that I just joined.  I had thought about joining JASNA for over ten years now, but it took COVID to finally make me take the plunge and join.  I was even more excited to find a group of like-minded ladies in Northeast Wisconsin with a Jane Austen Book Club.  I look forward to meeting them in person when things get back to normal.

This time around I was particularly struck by Eliza’s storyline.  I thought the storyline of Colonel Brandon and Eliza was so romantic and tragic.  I kept thinking about Eliza and how she was cast off from her unhappy marriage.  What did you do in the Regency era when you didn’t have a husband and you had an illegitimate child?  Luckily Colonel Brandon supported Eliza 2, but she was raised in the country.  Who loved her?  How could she marry stuck between two worlds and illegitimate?  I want a novel about this story.  I also wish Austen would have had more detail about Colonel Brandon and Willoughby’s duel.

We talked in book club about Willoughby and compared him to Wickham.  It was decided that I probably like the villain Willoughby better than the villain Wickham because Willoughby apologizes at the end of Sense and Sensibility and also seems to truly love Marianne. 

What do you love about Sense and Sensibility?  Do you have a favorite film version?

Overall, Sense and Sensibility is a timeless story that I will reread my entire life.  I love audio versions and Alison Larkin is a wonderful narrator of Jane Austen’s novels.