Jane Austen

Book Review: Sense and Sensibility

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Sense and Sensibility
by Jane Austen
Read by Nadia May

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Classic romance

For my second Jane Austen, I went with an audiobook, after feeling like it would have been better with Pride and Prejudice. Plus, I found an edition narrated by Nadia May, whose narration of Wives and Daughters I love. And though some of the characters made me want to throttle them, I enjoyed the book overall. Probably a little more than Pride and Prejudice, though I don’t think I can really compare reading one and listening to the other.

The plot of this book meandered a bit, but I don’t really remember being bored at any point. Again, that was probably helped by listening to an audiobook with great narration. I admit that I wish there had been a little more chemistry and even friendship build-up between some of the characters and maybe a little more in the way of showing their feelings and admissions of such. Overall, though, I enjoyed my time spent with this book and recommend the narration by Nadia May if you’re considering listening to the audiobook.

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Book Review: Pride and Prejudice (adapted for younger readers)

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Pride and Prejudice
by Jane Austen, adapted by Fern Siegel

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Classic children’s, romance

It’s difficult to know whether to rate books like this based on the story or on the adaptation. I gave the original book 4 stars and liked some aspects of this book better. It does a great job of cutting through the old-fashioned language and getting to the heart of the story. In this case, “telling” instead of “showing” both shortens the length of the story and explains what might otherwise be difficult for younger readers to comprehend or follow.

However, I had some issues with feeling like the book left something out now and then. A couple of times, the text seemed to refer to something that hadn’t been explained in the first place. I could remember it, if vaguely, from my reading of the original book, but it seemed to have been missing from the adaptation. For that reason, I gave the adaptation 4 stars. Overall, I like the idea of this story, but it just seems a little too…I don’t know, maybe bloated? for me. Still, I do think this adaptation more than adequately makes the classic accessible and would recommend this book for children around 8-12, with the extra note that with younger kids, it might be helpful (and enjoyable) to read it with a parent or older sibling/friend.

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Book Review: Pride and Prejudice

/ Kristi / Leave a comment

Pride and Prejudice
by Jane Austen

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Classic romance

My first exposure to Pride and Prejudice was from an episode of Wishbone when I was a teenager, but since then, I’ve not seen or read anything related to it. So overall, I went into the story not knowing a whole lot. Overall, I enjoyed the story, though the language certainly did slow me down at times. While there are some things about life back in those days I almost wish we still did today, I’m really glad that some things are different. Not that a family’s reputation can’t be soured at all by one person in the family, but it’s definitely not nearly as big of a deal these days.

The characters are what stand out to me the most about the story. The plot is a bit slow, especially in the first half, but I really liked getting to know the characters. Mr. Bennett hits the ground running with his snarky jokes in the first chapter. I don’t really understand why so many people love Mr. Darcy from the moment he first appears, but by the end, I certainly saw the strength of his character. Both of the Darcy siblings are so shy and introverted, I really connected with them. And Elizabeth may jump to some unfair conclusions about Mr. Darcy, but I don’t know that I can say I wouldn’t have done the same.

In the end, I think I would have been better off listening to an audiobook, and may do so in the future. I didn’t think it was bad, by any means (I gave it 4 stars, after all), but I wonder if I’d enjoy it more if I wasn’t slowing down so often to stumble over the old-fashioned language.

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If you’ve read this book, or read it in the future, feel free to let me know what you think!