Sense & Sensibility: With an Introduction by Joanna Trollope

Joanna Trollope on the power of Jane Austen. Joanna Trollope on five great books about Jane Austen. This is an entertaining exercise, but one offering few insights. If Trollope had taken more liberties with Austen, it might have served them both better. HarperCollins, pp, Telegraph offer price: Call or see books. Get the best at Telegraph Puzzles. A collection of the best contributions and reports from the Telegraph focussing on the key events, decisions and moments in Churchill's life. Austen is not exactly known for her wild physical love scenes so script-writers have to take what they can find.

Unfortunately, to our modern eyes this is just not enough. So Trollope stirs in some drug addiction as well to add shock factor but even so — if it was drugs that Willoughby introduced Eliza to rather than sex, to a modern reader it was still her choice. We may not yet have achieved full gender equality but reading Sense and Sensibility one realises quite how much more agency women have now than they did then. Wider options allow women to support themselves respectably without relying on the men in their lives.

The original Dashwood girls and their real-life contemporaries had only their charms to recommend them to a husband or else to face a long spinsterhood eking out an existence on the charity of others. Somehow Trollope is never quite able to conjure up the contrast. Her eventual humiliation naturally ends up on Youtube where by contrast Elinor is determined to maintain a poker face. It is interesting as a human drama but it is not a comedy of manners in the way that its namesake was.

I laughed out loud as Austen listed all of the different responses to the question of whether Harry Dashwood or Johnny Middleton were taller. The equivalent scene did not have the same impact at all. While Sense and Sensibility addressed the contemporary rise of Romanticism, it strikes no such chord today. Perhaps if Trollope had set her novel in the Sixties, allowing Marianne to be a hippy or similar then it might have worked better.

Really any kind of risk-taking would have given this novel a lift — Marianne shows that she is sensitive by strumming her guitar vaguely and playing Taylor Swift songs and Elinor shows she has sense by running the household expenses. Neither of them are extreme personality types. Trollope is at her best in the way she writes women and her re-invented Fanny Dashwood and Mary Middleton are superb in their ghastliness as are the fake-tanned Steele sisters.

Mags Dashwood is also a gloriously grumpy and grunting teenager. Still, seen as an independent work, I did not believe that Marianne would ever love Brandon and I wished that Elinor would tell Edward to take a hike. For when it comes to money, some things never change. Hardcover , pages. Published October 29th by Harper first published January 1st The Austen Project 1. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. Lists with This Book.

Sep 28, Leah rated it did not like it Shelves: This review may involve wailing and gnashing of teeth, not to mention cursing Persons of a sensitive disposition may wish to look away now. And on the assumption that no-one will be interested in this who doesn't know the original, there are some mild spoilers The Austen project is a strange little idea to rewrite all the Austen novels for a modern age. It certainly can't be because the originals are unreadable - I'd imagine they are more popular today than Why???

Sense & Sensibility

It certainly can't be because the originals are unreadable - I'd imagine they are more popular today than they have ever been. One can only assume they see it as a money-spinner. I'm delighted to say I got this book free - and even then it was too expensive. The original Sense and Sensibility deserves its place as a classic because of the light it casts on the restricted lives and opportunities of the sons and daughters of the 'gentry' in Jane Austen's time.

Unfortunately, society has changed so much that the premise doesn't work. In order to make the story fit into today's England - where opportunity for the middle-classes is almost infinite, where women are freer and more equal than they have ever been and where the norm is for people without money to do that revolutionary thing and get a job - Trollope has decided to make most of the characters completely feckless and thus entirely unsympathetic. He gave an almost imperceptible smirk. The story begins with the Dashwood family losing their home at Norland.

Not because it's entailed - oh, no! Already I'm wondering what society this reflects? Certainly not the one I live in, which stopped giving a To make it work, Trollope has had to make it overly complex and unbelievable Has the concept of going to work never occurred to any of them? Poor Elinor has to give up Uni. Can't she get a student loan and live in a bedsit like everyone else?

To be fair, she does get her rich relatives to pull strings to get her a job. But the rest whine endlessly about lack of money making me want to a hit them collectively over the head with a brick and b explain that living in a four-bedroom cottage, running a car and popping up to London every weekend to go to parties isn't really poverty! Then we have Marianne M! Suffering from constant asthma attacks presumably because when we get a cold these days, we just take paracetemol and get on with it , she spends her time wheezing, gasping, sobbing, throwing tantrums and being revoltingly rude to everyone and yet being so lovely throughout that no man can withstand her invisible charm.

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To explain this strange anomaly, Trollope tells us approximately 15, times that M is stunningly gorgeous, even whilst receiving Intensive Care. I shall brush quietly past the sex episode Shall I tell you about Wills! Of course, single motherhood tends not to lead to death these days, so how does Ms Trollope resolve this conundrum and ensure that we understand that he's a bad lot?

Well, by making Wills, who's not just the 'hottest boy in the county' , by the way, but a complete 'shagbandit' - charming into a drug-pusher!

Sense & Sensibility (The Austen Project, #1) by Joanna Trollope

Yes, little Eliza is a junkie I can't bear to talk about this monstrosity any longer. I will leave you to imagine whingy Ellie, pathetic Ed, and Mags, the nightmare teenager with an iThing habit. I will ignore the fact that all the married women stay at home to look after their children. I will pretend I didn't notice that we now have a Wills, a Harry and - yep, that's right - the Middletons.

I won't even mention the youtube 'trolling' incident My poor Ed must be cringing. Read at your peril View all 23 comments. Dec 15, Bebe Sarah Brechner rated it it was ok. Not worthy - even in the capable hands of Joanna Trollope, this retelling of Austen's classic is just chick lit pablum.

And there is no way I'd ever characterize Austen's work as such! I've always enjoyed Trollope's work, but here, she brings none of her usual finely drawn characters and subtle commentary on contemporary life. Austen's characters come across as useless, helpless, dependent, complaining women - because you cannot bring era characters and situations into the 21st century by j Not worthy - even in the capable hands of Joanna Trollope, this retelling of Austen's classic is just chick lit pablum.

Austen's characters come across as useless, helpless, dependent, complaining women - because you cannot bring era characters and situations into the 21st century by just adding a few external details such as texting, viral videos, and internet access. The social landscape is quite different now, as are women's situations, but here Trollope takes the easy way and simply tries to transpose most everything into a contemporary setting, creating a failed effort.

A deeper and more satisfying, but ultimately more difficult, attempt would be to use Austen's story as a jumping off point and develop an Austen-style commentary for today's world. This is the first of the series. I doubt if I will read any others, as I would have thought that Trollope would be the best for this. View all 3 comments. Especially with Austen, so much of the wit and pathos of the novel can be lost at the hands of authors of lesser talent.

Not so with Joanna Trollope's very modern but also very layered retelling of Sense and Sensibility. This is a thoroughly enjoyable book wi More reviews and no fluff on the blog http: This is a thoroughly enjoyable book with depth and interest, well written and with quite a few very astute observations on her characters, especially in their translation to a modern milieu. Trollope keeps most of the story intact but through careful selection of social situations, jobs, social media, and the modern trappings of a 21st century England, the transition is smooth and the character not only remain intact but also fully fleshed and interesting.

Rest assured, the novel is very well written, the author has more than just read the books, she's analyzed them and brought in her own thoughts on the characters as well.

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I mean, that it's probably leased. No many people can buy a car like that. Edward comes out feeling even more like a sad sack while, in contrast, Bill Brandon is much more appealing and given more attention in this book than the Austen. In all, this was a thoughtful read but definitely not cumbersome or overly literate. In fact, I felt more like I was watching a movie than reading a book - the characters especially from the Ang Lee movie were in my head throughout.

Sort of a Notting Hill meets Sense and Sensibility movies - in a good way. For once, it was a pleasure to read a retelling of an Austen classic. Kudos to author Trollope for really understanding the characters and thinking through clearly their translation to a modern world. I appreciate the mission of the Austen project, but this story was not successful for two main reasons.

First, the was an element of forced modernization - a mention of an iPad or Facebook seemed to exist just for the sake of reminding the reader of the time period regardless of if it interrupted the flow of the dialogue. Secondly, other than the haphazard mention of electronics, the story was not modernized. Things like a 16 year old swooning to get married or being connected on Facebook but fa I appreciate the mission of the Austen project, but this story was not successful for two main reasons.

Things like a 16 year old swooning to get married or being connected on Facebook but failing to learn of someone engagement for months just wouldn't happen. The plot needed to be adjusted enough to be believable. The original story, written in a time where trips across the country took weeks and letters were the primary means of communication, doesn't carry over. May 07, Kami Bee rated it did not like it. I absolutely love this Austen Project thing.

It's so much more respectful to the original books, which are brilliant, than all this cheap sea monster nonsense, and has the potential to actually introduce Jane Austen's stories to an audience who might not have the patience to wade through the very classic nature of the original writing. I thought Sense and Sensibility would probably be one of the harder and more interesting updates, given so much of the story revolves around inheritances and moral I absolutely love this Austen Project thing. I thought Sense and Sensibility would probably be one of the harder and more interesting updates, given so much of the story revolves around inheritances and moral scandals and all the sorts of things we don't care a fig about these days.

What I wasn't expecting was that the author wouldn't try. Everyone talks and thinks in awful, stuffy language, except of course when someone says something utterly cringeworthy like 'totes adorbs' to remind you that this is They also act inexplicably like they just stepped out of that old world with all its old attitudes.

There is some waffling at the start about how the Dashwood girls' parents were never married, which is why they end up being turfed out of the house they have lived in for years. Wait, this is , right? Even worse, everyone is obsessed with big houses that have ridiculous names and refers to them by name all the time. Clearly the author couldn't think of an equivalent ridiculous thing that real modern middle-class people do. And then, of course, the transplanted Dashwoods are an utterly unsympathetic lot. In the original story, they were to be pitied because they were women, and there was only so much women could do to alter the course of their lives in those times.

I actually felt I was on the side of John and Fanny, the 'evil' stepfamily who toss them out. After all, the house is not theirs and they could never have afforded the upkeep of it had they gone on as they were. Of course, they end up moving on to the charity of other relatives, with very little gratitude besides. Marianne, who was a bit of an ass in the original, is now an outright bitch. But of course, because she's beautiful, nobody calls her out on this behaviour. Even when she is at a dinner party rolling her eyes and muttering sarcastic things about people in their presence, everyone just laughs about how adorable she is.

And, of course, her older man, Bill Brandon, thinks she's just wonderful. Well, it's suggested that he may have a thing for tragic idiotic girls, which would be credible if he weren't old enough and experienced enough to know better than to act on that. Elinor, at least, recognises that sacrifices need to be made and finds work for herself along with the family's new life.

But it is really utterly impossible to sympathise with her relationship problems. For a start, she's obsessed with an idiot. This incarnation of Edward Ferrars seems utterly suited to Marianne, in that for most of his time on the pages he just moons around mumbling about how he wants to do good in the world and complaining that nobody will give him a chance, even though he refuses to put his mind towards earning any qualifications that would make him useful. He is supposed to be a tragic figure because his mother is kind of a bitch and keeps carrying on about how he should marry rich girls and do something with his life.

This is why, even though he is smitten with Elinor, he won't do anything about it. Frankly the guy needs to grow a pair and do what he wants, although presumably his other problem is not wanting to do what's necessary to get the money that requires if he loses Mummy's support. In spite of all this embarrassing moaning and moping and shiftlessness, Elinor quietly worships the guy. You'd think the sun shone out of his arse. But part of that is probably that she is just as bad when it comes to standing up for herself.

She quits her architecture course without a fight when it becomes apparent nobody else in the family will earn money, even though it would make far more sense to complete it. She tolerates so much nonsense that her eventual refusal to take any more is a relief for the poor exasperated reader more than a liberating moment for her. Worst, she is utterly unwilling to set any sort of standard or direction for her relationship with Edward.

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She allows him to show up and moon over her whenever he likes even though he won't stand up for his feelings for her to anyone in his family. Of course she's not okay with this, but instead of taking a stand she does ridiculous passive-aggressive things like refusing to contact him on Facebook and being surly to him when he does show up.

And then, she has the nerve to be outraged when she finds out that Lucy Steele has managed to get a whole secret engagement out of him! I never did work out why I was supposed to hate this Lucy. It seemed like the only justification was that everyone knew Edward really wanted to be with Elinor. But, really, all the guy had to do was tell Lucy if he didn't want to be engaged, right? And why did she have justification to think they were engaged in the first place?

Apparently it all has to do with some night when Edward was really drunk and there was, presumably, either an accidental proposal or sex, of which the latter seems more likely. Elinor helpfully works out the sex is what must have happened, although I don't think we are ever told if she is correct. But how sex leads to a secret engagement is something I seem to have missed, since Lucy is not pregnant or likely any more defiled than she already was. From what we are told, it seems like Lucy threatened to blurt all sorts of things out to people, but frankly all he had to do was not agree to marry her.

He might have ended up breaking with her family, but he still had Elinor's family, right? Frankly, the only reason she was threatening him with anything was either because she knew he'd never stand up to her, which is most likely, or because she genuinely thought they had a thing, in which case expecting him to fess up at some point was reasonable. Anyway, he does fess up when it all comes out, and there is a horrible confused moment where everyone thinks he has actually gone through with the wedding only for it to turn out that Lucy has run off with his gay brother.

At this point, having lost his disappointing his family with his choice in future wives virginity, he comes crawling back to Elinor. He is as surprised as me when she agrees to marry him. I mean, how little respect can you have for yourself, girl? This guy was only willing to ruin both your lives because of some unspecified point of honour. That's not noble in the modern age. She even falls for his line about coming to her with an aquamarine engagement ring because he wants to make sure she 'knows he's serious'.

Seriously too broke and incompetent to buy a proper diamond more like, although, as refreshingly not boy-crazy youngest sister Margaret reflects, it's basically the same thing but blue. I could go on about the lame attempts to use Margaret to show off how IT'S ! I could complain about the lost opportunity to show how Marianne and The Older Man could actually be a passionate romantic match in a modern setting. As it is, it's just Lolita complex-creepy. I could point out and am, I guess that everyone keeps saying things 'slightly desperately', which is weird, and that that wasn't trolling.

I think making Elinor into a weak idiot is unforgivable enough without all these other abominable missteps. Are we really all so overwhelmed by vampire romances these days that a girl can't carry a torch for a guy without losing her humanity head? View all 4 comments. Nov 12, Koeeoaddi rated it did not like it Shelves: I really wanted to love this but could not get past page I think the author's decision to try to stay close to the storyline and even the language of the original while updating it with jeans, iPods and artsy smocks just didn't work for me. If you can't give me something sharp and clever and new, like Amy Heckerling did with Emma in Clueless , then I'd just as soon re-read Jane Austen's masterpiece.

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For the umpteenth time. Feb 18, Lee rated it did not like it Shelves: The Austen Project is well-known authors rewriting the actual books for a modern audience. Unlike some of the other Austenesque books out there, they aren't adding vampires or murder mysteries or whatnot, just writing the same story and setting in the s. Who'd have thought that someone of Trollope's reputation could update such a wonderful story and make it so so so so bad?

No one was reading this and thought that maybe they needed to direct Trollope on another path? Like one going in an entirely different direction Let me start at the beginning: I was so excited to see this book on offer at the library, and began to read even though I was already in the middle of reading some other books.

At the end of chapter one I blinked, and then I blinked again, but read on, thinking I was terribly uncharitable and should give it more of a chance. After chapter two, my blinking had increased to some sort of deep sleep REM. After chapter three, I fired up the ipad and looked up some reviews to see if I was the only one sensing there was little sense in this version of Sense and Sensibility.

I found many others had the same opinion. I truly think there are some bogus reviews on this site to bump up the average. Anyway, I plodded on for another couple of chapters, finally giving up and throwing this firmly into my 'did-not-finish' shelf. What's wrong with it, you ask. Where do I start? Modernising Austen, to me, doesn't mean using the exact same conflicts, tossing in a couple of trendy words to decorate the exact same dialogue, and exchanging the corsets for ipod headphones.

Instead we get bad fanfic which was published. Let's just look at chapter one, shall we?

Henry Dashwood dies and his estate goes directly to his only legitimate son, John, because insert shocked faces here he had never married the mother of his 3 daughters. Yes, in this day and age it's a great scandal for someone to live with a man, have 3 children to that man, and never legally marry him. Didn't you know this? It's also apparently impossible for that said defacto wife, or her children, to take the new heir to court and fight for the estate legally.

I have trouble getting past this point really. It's so ridiculous to think they had no rights as they'd apparently lived in the house mansion apparently for 20 odd years. Instead, they become destitute! Well, destitute with savings amounting to thousand pounds, but apparently they can't rent a decent place in England with that sort of cash Someone probably Fanny does suggest getting a job to pay for your new house's rent, but that's a horrid suggestion!

The main problem with this scenario is that instead of feeling so horribly sad for the Dashwood women, as you do in the original, you now just want to slap them and give Fanny a high-five for her assertiveness. If you're going to write like Austen, you need to add some of the social issues of today, but there was none.

If you're going to write like Austen, you need some subtlety, some wry humour, something I did meet Edward, but I refused to read on to meet Colonel Brandon. The Colonel is one of my all time favourite literary characters and I despaired at what he might become in this version, or what he might be called. Really, did no one suggest to Trollope that her choices of nicknames were just plain wrong?

Okay, I really need to stop ranting. Thank goodness this is a library book and I never paid good money for this.