Sense and Sensibility

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I was interested to reread Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen because I came out as Elinor Dashwood in a quiz I took ages ago. I would say that a distinguishing feature of Elinor's character is that unlike her sister Marianne who grieves publicly when she feels she has been wronged and wallows in self pity, Elinor is much more quiet about her suffering and only allows others to know of her suffering when necessary. She prefers not to have others know and discuss her affliction with her. In this respect I am probably quite similar as I tend to prefer not to tell other people about trials and difficulties until well after the fact so for instance when I was pregnant and admitted to hospital with hyperemesis gravidarum I was very upset that my husband had given our minister permission to announce it at the Bible Study as I would rather have kept it private. (He didn't realise I didn't want people to know and had even thought about what I would want made public before he gave permission.)

Anyway, back to the book:

Sense and Sensibility follows the fortunes of sisters Elinor and Marianne Dashwood following the death of their father. Although some characters who do wrong do not appear to suffer any ill consequences, the chief one does and those who have been wronged seem happy that although they appear materially worse off, in fact they are better off than those who wronged them. The book places a high value on good attributes (such as patience, forbearance, kindness and forgiveness) and disapproves of bad attributes (such as gossiping, materialism, dishonesty and unfaithfulness).

In addition to being a book which I consider suitable to read, it is also a book I enjoyed and I am definitely keeping it.