sense and Sensibility post 1

   I am currently reading the classic, Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen.  I am currently at chapter eleven. So far in this book the main characters, Elinor and Marianne's father has died. They and their mother Mrs. Dashwood and younger sister Margaret we originally living with their half-brother until they found a affordable place to live. At their half-brother's house Elinor meets Edward, who is Mrs. John Dashwood's    ( the brother-in-law's wife) brother. Elinor likes Edward very much but they find a new house to live in and so she must move away from him. She does however, invite him to come and visit/stay at her new house and he says that he will, but he hasn't come yet. At the Dashwood's new house Marianne meets Mr. Willoughby who she considers the 'perfect man'. He likes all of the things that she does and he meets all of he expectations that she has for a man. Right now the book is mainly centered around Marianne and Willoughby's relationship.

   This book is interesting. I don't really like it because it is hard to understand and some of the characters have close to the same names. It is also sort of boring. This book talks a lot about what is good behavior and what isn't. The characters judge the other characters strangely and it is sometimes hard to understand what a person is saying and what it means. This book isn't entirely bad, it has some interesting things that happen but it isn't a great book that someone would want to never stop reading.

  The main themes in this book that are mentioned often are sense and sensibility, obviously because of the title. In each of the chapters I have read I've encountered at least one if not both of these words. This usually portrays to one of the characters. When Elinor or Marianne describe a person they say something to do with the person's sense or sensibility and if they have good or bad sense.

  I don't really have a favorite character , but if I had to choose then it would be Elinor. She is the smartest, level-headed, and she is kind and polite to everyone. Marianne seems a little too snobbish and judges people and first impressions to harshly. I also think that she has an unrealistic idea of what a 'suitable' man should be like, she has so high of expectations. It is to early in the book to see much of a change in the characters but I'm hoping that the author will build more on all of the characters in the book.

One question that I have about this book is the way Jane Austen writes peoples age. In the book they say "of five and twenty years of age", and I was wondering if that is how they really spoke during the Dashwood's time or if the author added it to make her book more unique or to make the readers think more about what they're reading.