Back to the Classics #6

I read this book for the Back to the Classics Challenge 2018.

Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen

Two sisters are disappointed romantically by two previously engaged guys. Sister Marianne reacts with drama, tears, prostration, melancholy and generally makes jilted doe Lily Dale look like a slouch. Sister Elinor hides her unhappiness so as not to burden her emotional mother and sister with her sadness. She takes a tack that is as sensible as it is rare:

And after all, Marianne, after all that is bewitching in the idea of a single and constant attachment, and all that can be said of one's happiness depending entirely on any particular person, it is not meant—it is not fit—it is not possible that it should be so.

Arguing we had better not base our happiness on somebody we can lose, Austen rejects notions of soul mates united forever in bliss. Given this skeptical attitude about heart’s desires, it seems a miracle that she is still read today, steeped as we are in the belief “the only one for me.” Not to mention our uneasiness about and excessive respect of money, stuff, and status – i.e, more things we can easily lose - is as worthy of contempt now as it was in the 18^th century.

But her novels survive because she appeals to those of us, like Elinor, that make strong efforts to bear our troubles without fretting, to conceal emotion with fortitude in order to prevent giving other people pain, to bear up because our self-respect demands it. For Austen, those that lack self-restraint choose to lack self-restraint; those that lack principle and civility consciously reject manners and elan.

Just read it. It’s great. This is my second Austen. I totally understand why her fans are totally nuts about her. Austen is stern, but reasonable. Austen appeals to us readers who read in order to see life more clearly, who believe it is important, insofar as they can, to live life bravely, with self-command, controlling what is up to them (their own responses to life) and not worrying much about what is out of their control (wealth, property, reputation, station, awards, hangers-on, etc.).