The only book I have to talk about today is Sense and Sensibility, so I suppose this will be a little more like a proper review!

Among Austen’s novels, Sense and Sensibility has probably made the smallest impression on me. I love Pride and Prejudice, I actually really enjoy Mansfield Park and Fanny, I think Emma and Anne are fantastic, but Marianne and Elinor… I pretty much remember them as sisters who are opposites. So I went into this remembering a bit of the plot but not much else, making this a comparatively ‘new’ reread for me.

Sense and Sensibility revolves around two sisters: Elinor (who is the sense) and Marianne (the sensibility aka the overly dramatic one). They are both pretty young, especially compared to Anne, but so different. Perhaps it’s because Elinor is the oldest, but she’s a bit more rational and cautious in expressing her feelings. Marianne, on the other hand, throws herself heart, body, and soul into her emotions, which cause her to fall in love with Willoughby the moment they met.

I actually really like the wry tone in this book. It’s even clearer here than in Persuasion that the narrator is poking fun at the characters, especially when it comes to the Dashwoods (the self-centered stepbrother of the girls and his wife), and Marianne’s excessive sentimentality with regards to the universe. By contrast, although I know the book advocates a balance between Elinor’s sense and Marianne’s sensibility, I don’t see it poking fun at Elinor quite so much; perhaps she’s too sensible for that.

The male leads here were… interesting. Neither of them have much to recommend. Willoughby is a cad and absent for most of the novel, so the two romantic leads are: Edward Ferrars (who spends most of the novel in love with someone else) and Captain Brandon (who disappears for a long time to take care of business and whom Marianne considers too old for most of the novel). I actually don’t get how the romance happens here. We all know that Elinor likes Edward, but how did he get over his fiancee so quickly? And Marianne spent most of the book pining for Willoughby, how did she end up with Brandon?

(On a side note: the age gap between the two of them would be so sketchy if this took place in this time and age)

If we take out the romance, though, this ends up being a funny slice of life book. You have two sisters who are forced to move to a new place and make friends and you get to see how they react to various people: mean girl/nice girl Lucy Steele, can’t be bothered Lady Middleton, gossipy auntie-like Mrs. Jennings, etc. It’s a lot of fun and the wry tone of the narrator matches mine quite a bit.

I wonder what happens to Margaret (the third, forgotten sister) in the end. After all, the book introduces her as someone who has “imbibed a good deal of Marianne’s romance, without much of her sense” and I wonder if she learnt anything from her sisters.

Next up: Emma!

Today’s Bakes

I was drinking the cold brew for today’s 2019 Dong Ding Oolong Tea review today, so I didn’t try any new teas, but I did make cookies!

I took this recipe from BBC Good Food but because I didn’t have any vanilla essence (and the stores are out of stock), I used 1 tsp of orange flower water instead (the small bottle cost me $17, I’m adding it to everything I bake). It ended up giving the cookies a really nice flavour and went well with the chocolate! I will definitely be snacking on these as I read for the next couple of days!

And since I still have leftover chips, I might make chocolate chip scones!