Guest Review of Sense & Sensibility Plus a Contest to Win Jane Austen Books and a DVD!

Masterpiece's Complete Jane Austen concluded tonight with the wonderful adaptation of Sense & Sensibility. Here is a review of the film from Jill Pitkeathley, author of the forthcoming novel about Austen and her sister, Cassandra and Jane. Read her review of Emma here.

After the review, check out my Jane Austen contest!

Making a seduction scene the introduction to an adaptation of a Jane Austen novel is a bold step and one for which Andrew Davies has been much criticised. Yet the ruin of Colonel Brandon's ward by Willoughby is central to the plot of Sense & Sensibility, so illustrating how the poor young girl was deceived and abandoned by him is surely not a distortion of what Jane Austen wanted her readers to understand. Indeed, though she lived and died a virgin, Jane was by no means ignorant of both the fact and the effect of sex outside marriage. She lived, after all, in the robust days of the Regency and before the times of Queen Victoria when young ladies were not expected to know about such things. Jane was quite well aware of what loss of virtue in a woman meant and seduction features in Pride and Prejudice and Mansfield Park as well as in Sense and Sensibility.

S&S as she called it, was the first of Jane's books to be published, after Pride and Prejudice had been rejected by one publisher by return of post! It was written at the end of the 18th centurty and first took the 'epistolary' form as a series of letters between the two main characters. She was writing it perhaps when she herself had a brief romance with Tom LeFroy, a young Irishman whom she met when he was over from Ireland visiting his relatives. She may have been in love with him but his family was poor and they both knew he would be obliged to marry well--an alliance with the daughter of a poor clergyman was out of the question as Jane would have well understood. Perhaps Elinor and Marianne represent the two sides of Jane's character--Marianne the romantic and headstrong, Elinor the practical and reserved. Jane later spent a good deal of time revising the manuscript into the narrative form we know now so that it is unclear which parts were written by a 22-year-old Jane and which by the woman of 36 as she was when it was eventually published in 1811. Of course her identity was not then known at all -- it was attributed only to 'A Lady.'

Although much of the book was probably written when Jane was in her early twenties, it shows all the maturity of form and characterisation that we expct hof her novels. She allows the characters to develop and our opinions of them to change as the story unfolds. Mrs. Jennings is at first ridiculous and heartless in her teasing of the sisters but shows real sympathy and warmth during Marianne's illness. The growth of Marianne's respect and love for the Colonel is shown clearly as the story progresses and perhaps comes from the understanding of Jane herself that a man of six and thirty can still be an acceptable lover, even if he does need a flannel waistcoat!

Mrs. John Dashwood is an odious character with a grasping and callous nature which enables her to persuade her husband from his original idea of giving his half sisters one thousand pounds apiece to merely making them a present of fish and game in season--and still is able to think himself generous.

Mrs. Dashwood, the mother, is very like Marianne--driven by her emotions, and so easily overlooks the needs of her elder daughter in her absorption with Marianne and Willoughby, by whom she is also taken in. But Elinor is perhaps not a very appealing character--to judgmental and critcial to elicit our sympathy, somehow she shows perhaps a little too MUCH sense. It makes her rather dull and I sometimes think that in that respect, she and Edward are very well suited to each other!

If I have one reservation about Andrew Davies' adaptation which in all other respects I loved, it is the portrayal of Willoughby. To my mind he is not sufficiently handsome and nowhere near aristocrative enough. The meeting of Willoughby and Marianne on that rain swept hillside is the most dramatic and romantic in all Jane Austen's works and he needs to be the most dramatic and romantic person to match the occasion--the sort of whom Marianne dreams. He is a scoundrel--we suspect from the beginning, but we need to see how he can sweep a girl off her feet figuratively as well as literally!

Many a young woman identified with Marianne when S&S first came out--including the heiress to the Throne, Princess Charlotte, who remarked that 'me and Marianne are very much alike.' Sadly, unlike Marianne who survives her putrid fever to make a wise and sensible marriage, Princess Charlotte was destined to die giving birth to a still born son, leaving the throne of England to Queen Victoria though Jane Austen did not live to see this as she herself died in 1817 at the early age of 41.
--Jill Pitkeathly, author of Cassandra and Jane, coming in September 2008

As you all know, I added a poll to the blog where we can all vote for our favorite adaptation. But I want to know why you picked the one you did -- so I'm running a contest.

Tell me in the comments which adaptation was your favorite and why, and you'll be entered into a random drawing to win a collection of Austen inspired novels including Darcy's Story, an advance reader's edition of Cassandra & Jane, Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, Lost in Austen and The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen as well as the DVD of the most popular adaptation, as chosen by all of you! The contest will end and polls will close next Monday April 14th.

Comments

[Jenn]

My favorite adaptation was Pride & Prejudice. I believe the actors picked were right-on with the characters in the book, and there weren't too many discrepancies between the book and the movie.

[Texan]

Pride and Prejudice is my favorite because it is the first Jane Austen book I read and it is where I got hooked.

[Lisa]

Pride and Prejudice is my favorite, too. I just loved the characters , the tensions between Darcy and Elizabeth, the location, costumes, language, and filming of this adaptation. I feel that they truely captured Jane Austen's written word in film and I love watching every minute of this! This is also my favorite Jane Austen novel and Sense and Senisibility is my next choice.

[Marlyn]

I'm going to be completely unoriginal and go with Pride and Prejudice as well. Although it's not my favourite Austen novel (that distinction goes to Persuasion), I think the casting for P&P was spot-on, particularly Jennifer Ehle, Colin Firth, and Julia Sawalha.

[Stephanie]

I would appreciate it if you could add my name to your drawing.

I agree with your description of the Willoughby character. I found that the actor who played him in the Ang Lee film (with Emma Thompson) was much more dashing.

I have to agree that I really enjoyed P&P, but also found the Northanger Abbey Masterpiece film to be quite well done.

[Kiara Sampson]

Wow, such a tuff choice....But Sense and Sensibility is my all time favorite with my favorite adaption as the masterpiece theater one. I wasnt very stricken with Willoughby but I thought they picked the best Marianne. Plus I did a musical of Sense and Sensibility where I was Marianne and ever since I've been hooked.

Kiara

[Susan]

Wow, this is getting redundant. But, yes, I too am a Pride & Prejudice fan. I loved watching The Complete Jane Austen, and P & P has always been my favorite of the novels. I own like 4 different cinematic adaptations of it, but the Firth/Ehle is the best. It's the one truest to the novel and their chemistry is great!

[Cheryl]

I chose Northanger Abbey because it was the one I was least familiar with and I was very pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did! (P&P is still the best hands down but I wanted to cast a vote for Henry Tilney and Catherine Morland)

[Ti]

Although my pick does not seem to be the most popular..I am going with Emma. It's one of the few times where the movie actually prompted me to read the book.

Ti

[Marlayne]

My favorite book is Emma, it is so romantic and funny! and i love the charachters in it.
Marlayne

[Silent D]

I think the new Northanger Abbey adaptation was my favorite -- it stands on its own as a film better than the rest.

[Kiki]

I like Emma--I love the Gwyneth Paltrow version, but the Kate Beckinsale version( the one the showed on PBS) is pretty good as well. I think Emma is light and funny; a true comedy--and I love Mr. Knightley--he is my favorite Austen gentleman, even before Mr. Darcy. Emma makes mistakes, and regrets them, and Mr. Knightley is the gentle nudge to help her see her way. And he still loves and adores her!

[Jeanette]

Picking from the new crop of adaptations, I would pick Sense and Sensibility. There were plenty of little things that I did not like but compared to all the other new adaptations we've just seen, I think this one was the best.
Of all the Jane Austen adaptations ever, I would have to say P&P 95 is my favorite. :-)

[Mer]

As much as I love P&P, I'm going to go out on a limb and say Northanger Abbey for the crop of recent adaptations--from a purist's perspective, yes, it didn't necessarily get everything right, but I think it was a delight nonetheless. It kept to the spirit of the book and the confines of the 1 1/2 hour format it was given. On a sidenote, I have read Cassandra & Jane and it's beautifully done.

[Katie B.]

I have to pick Pride and Prejudice. It's my favorite Jane Austen book, the first of hers that I read. I also think the actors were great in it, especially Colin Firth. By far the best Darcy of all the adaptations made.

[Travi]

Sense and Sensibility is my favorite adaptation. Loved the filming and photography, thought the actors were very realistic.

[Ana T.]

This is a tough question as I love P&P and the 2 Persuasions so much. I think I'll go with the first Persuasion (Ciaran Hinds and Amanda Root) because I think they captured the essence of the book beautifully.

[Rhonda Stapleton]

I have to vote for Colin Quinn--er, I mean the A&E adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. He really, really did a fantastic job portraying Mr. Darcy. *fangirl swoon*

[Joanna Y.]

My favorite adaptation ever is Persuasion 2 (with Amanda Root) but there are lots of close seconds, including the new S&S, Emma Thompson's S&S, the new Northanger Abbey, and of course P&P with JE & Colin Firth. I think I love Persuasion so much because the story is bittersweet but has a happy ending with a second chance @ love that works out. Love the adaptation with A. Root b/c she seems so sweet and good.

[Dana Huff]

I think my favorite was Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle, simply because it's my favorite book as well, but it is a tough choice. I really loved Sense and Sensibility with Emma Thompson, too, though. I don't think I will ever forget Alan Rickman's Colonel Brandon. Then again, the version of Persuasion with Ciaran Hinds is also excellent. So hard to choose! But for sheer faithfulness to the text, I have to go with Pride and Prejudice.