Sense and Sensibility: The Book

I know I read this book in high school (voluntarily, not assigned), but thank goodness I forgot everything about it. All I knew going in was that everyone loves Colonel Brandon, at least as portrayed by Alan Rickman.

My biggest takeaway from reading it now is that it’s funny! I know Austen often pokes fun at society and class, but I didn’t expect so much of the humor to feel fresh and relevant. The scene where Mrs. Jennings is convinced that Brandon just proposed to Elinor and has a whole conversation with her, each talking about something entirely different, is comedy gold. If they cut that scene in any of the film adaptations, I’ll be very disappointed. There are a lot of other funny scenes, too, particularly with the Palmers and with the Miss Steeles, and in general, my ideal adaptation would play up all the comedic elements and downplay all the drama. Melodrama would also be acceptable and entirely appropriate, though, given the theme of excessive sensibility and overwrought emotions.

My next revelation is that Colonel Brandon is kind of a sad sack (don’t @ me). Five and thirty may not be too old to feel love, but it’s certainly too old to fall in love with a 16 year old who won’t give you the time of day and then spend the next two years pining for her and feeling sorry for yourself. The resemblance between Marianne and Brandon’s dead ex-girlfriend/sister-in-law goes a little way toward justifying his behavior, but I still think that if he had any self-respect at all, he would move the fuck on. I’m very curious to see how his character is handled in the movie versions, whether they’ll try to write him as less pathetic or lean into his sad-sack personality. I honestly don’t know which I’d rather see. I do fully expect every film to adjust the characters’ ages so the Brandon-Marianne relationship doesn’t come across as creepy — I know it was perfectly acceptable in Austen’s time, but we can all admit that it would be hella creepy today. I also expect the movie-Marianne to develop feelings for Brandon before they get married, because again, while marrying first and falling in love later was a very happy ending in Austen’s time, it doesn’t really fit with our modern ideas of romance.

Speaking of our modern ideas of romance, I’m also curious about what tweaks the movies will make to Edward and Elinor’s relationship. The book does a lot more telling and not so much showing that they (probably) love each other, and the emphasis on Elinor’s being a very prudent young woman, not to mention Edward’s clinical shyness, precludes any effusions of love and regard. Even as a reader, I wanted more hints at romance between them than Austen was willing to give. As a viewer, I expect a lot of meaningful looks and a fair amount of blushing to drive home the point that these two people actually like each other.

Another surprise for me was Lucy’s character. That bitch is a straight up Mean Girl! Every conversation between Lucy and Elinor is dripping with sugar and acid, and I LOVE IT. This is another element I would love to see played up in the movies. Nothing would make me happier than to see Lucy portrayed as an uneducated Regina George. Elinor is 100% onto her shit, too, and it was so gratifying to see that she is totally capable of playing the same game. Obviously, Elinor declines to play games because she is a lady, thank you very much, but the point is that she could execute a savage takedown at any moment if she so chose. In the modernized adaptations especially, I hope they lean into Lucy as a mean girl and maybe let Elinor show a little of her inner Cady Heron. Also, I would just like to say that I TOTALLY CALLED Lucy marrying Robert Ferrars!

Going back to Marianne’s character, my final takeaway is that she’s the worst.

It could be a challenge to make Marianne likeable in a film adaptation, since she’s a spoiled brat for most of the story, but my real beef with her is the complete 180 she does after nearly dying of a fever. She’s been through so much by that point, and she’s already resolved to follow Elinor’s example of being a grown-up about her feelings, but it takes a near death experience to get her to truly change her ways. And boy does she change them! She’s completely unrecognizable after her illness. This enormous personality shift is, I assume, what Elinor was hoping would come to Marianne in the due course of growing up and seeing more of the world, and it would be a lot more believable if it came on gradually. But for the sake of tying up loose ends, I suppose, Marianne has to come down with a bad case of epiphanitis. (Epiphanitis: a medical condition in which the sufferer experiences one or more convenient epiphanies that move the story toward a neat conclusion.) If any of the movies can make this drastic change more believable (for instance, by giving Marianne a severe head injury), I’ll be very impressed.

Adaptation wish list:

1. Make it funny.
2. Make it bitchy.
3. Make Brandon less pathetic.
4. Make Marianne more believable.