Comments on: Sense and Modern Sensibility http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2009/12/04/sense-and-modern-sensibility/ A First Things Blog Mon, 20 May 2013 23:25:14 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Gail F http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2009/12/04/sense-and-modern-sensibility/comment-page-1/#comment-5670 Gail F Sun, 06 Dec 2009 00:37:41 +0000 http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/?p=10180#comment-5670 An interesting article, and a curious one — because to me the idea of reading Jane Austin without paying attention to her moral points is a bizarre one. Why would you do that?

Although I suppose some people must. That is really what drove me crazy about the newest film of “Pride and Prejudice.” In the book, Jane is “too” good — but that is what Elizabeth loves and admires about her. In the movie she’s rather a simpleton, and in the end Elizabeth gets her to say something bad about her future sisters-in-law, which is supposed to be a triumph. Elizabeth is a more sympathetic character than Jane, but she herself knows that she is NOT as good as Jane and that that is a fault, not a good thing.

When I first read her novels I was in my 30s. I was delighted at the end of “Sense and Sensibility,” which was not at all what I expected. I can’t imagine anyone writing a book today with an end like that.

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