This past month I have read Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility for the #JaneAustenBookClub with Erin of Quintessentially English.  While I have seen the film starring Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet a number of times I have never before read the book.  After a month I have been led to believe that all books should be read first before you see the film.  This is a fundamental rule I try to live by as an adult and pass on to my children as we make our way through the Harry Potter series together.  To be fair I have only read Pride and Prejudice (again and again) up until this book club and have lived vicariously through Jane Austen in film.  

After completing the book I have been left to feel like Sense and Sensibility may be one of my least favourite books by Jane Austen.  Basically it was hard enough to read without picturing the actors who had portrayed the characters in the ’95 film version.  It was disheartening to find that some of the characters did not come off the same way on paper as they did on film.  An exception to this though would be Mr. Palmer (portrayed in the film by Hugh Laurie) who was one of my favourites in the film and made me laugh in the book with his muttered comments. 

 F R O M   T H E   B O O K 

I think the reason the book Sense and Sensibility did not resonate with me as well as the Ang Lee film version was due the acting of Alan Rickman.  Honestly the video clip below where he comes in to see Marianne playing the piano says it all.  It is as if the world has stopped and all he can see is her.  I remember seeing that scene for the first time as a teenager and wanting so much to be loved like that.  To have someone look at me the way Col. Brandon looked at Marianne with all those stolen glances. The way he was always there for her even when she did not realise his love for her.  

It gets down to the climatic scene near the end where a drenched Marianne  is being carried back to the house by Col. Brandon. To me it was the most romantic scene in the film.  Then I read the book and it came across less romanticized and more about practicality or duty.  Col. Brandon had been dealt not the best of hands of life and it only seemed a good fit that Marianne put aside her silly notion of sensibility and marry him because it was a good match for him.  In the book I did not really feel they fell in love as it seemed they did in the film and I think that is how the film ruined the book for me.