the extensive reading of books

Well, maybe not extensive... 

Two books down, and...many more to go...but I'm working on it!

(Til We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis & Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen)

Sense & Sensibility has always been a favorite of mine because the parallels I find in the close relationship of Marianne and Elinor, closely reflect me and my sister, Kathryn. I usually enjoy Austen's books, however for some reason it took me several years of picking up this novel again and again to finally finish it. I attribute that to the fact that several movie versions of this story have established themselves among my list of film favorites, and therefore in reading the book my imagination was often inhibited by pre-existing faces and places. Upon reaching the final few chapters of the book, however, I found myself as usual, enraptured in Austen's depiction of the story resolution. Alas, in the end I found my love of it more affirmed than ever, and my belief that the book is always better than the movie, proven. 

Here are some of my favorite quotes throughout:

"You are in a melancholy humour, and fancy that any one unlike yourself must be happy. But remember that the pain of parting from friends will be felt by every body at times, whatever be their education or state. Know your own happiness. You want nothing but patience -- or give it a more fascinating name, call it hope." ~ Mrs. Dashwood to Edward 

"When the weather is settled, and I have recovered my strength,' said she, 'we will take long walks together every day. We will walk to the farm at the edge of the down, and see how the children go on; we will walk to Sir John's new plantations at Barton Cross, and the Abbeyland; and we will often go to the old ruins of the Priory, and try to trace its foundations as far as we are told they once reached. I know we shall be happy. I know the summer will pass happily away. I mean never to be later in rising than six, and from that time till dinner I shall divide every moment between music and reading. I have formed my plan, and am determined to enter on a course of serious study. Our own library is too well known to me, to be resorted to for anything beyond mere amusement. But there are many works well worth reading at the Park; and there are others fo more modern production, which I know I can borrow from Colonel Brandon. By reading only six hours a day, I shall gain in the course of a twelvemonth a great deal of instruction which I now feel myself to want." ~ Marianne to Elinor, following her recovery from illness and resolution on her lessons learned in love.

“They were brought together by mutual affection, with the warmest approbation of their real friends; their intimate knowledge of each other seemed to make their happiness certain, and they only wanted something to live upon.” ~ Austen, speaking about Edward and Elinor

“A three weeks’ residence at Delaford, where, in his evening hours at least, he had little to do but to calculate the disproportion between thirty-six and seventeen…” ~ Austen, speaking of Colonel Brandon who is in-love with Marianne…I love Austen’s sense of humor! 

“Their resemblance in good principles, and good sense, in disposition and manner of thinking, would probably have been sufficient to unite them in friendship, without any other attraction; but their being in love with two sisters, and two sisters fond of each other, made that mutual regard inevitable and immediate…” ~ talking of Edward and the Colonel’s quickly formed friendship. I love this! I hope Kathryn and I can say this about us someday. 


Next book, Wuthering Heights!