Sense and Sensibility - Joanna Trollope

John Dashwood promised his dying father that he would take care of his half sisters. But his wife, Fanny, has no desire to share their newly inherited estate with Belle Dashwood's daughters. When she descends upon Norland Park with her Romanian nanny and her mood boards, the three Dashwood girls—Elinor, Marianne, and Margaret—are suddenly faced with the cruelties of life without their father, their home, or their money.

As they come to terms with life without the status of their country house, the protection of the family name, or the comfort of an inheritance, Elinor and Marianne are confronted by the cold hard reality of a world where people's attitudes can change as drastically as their circumstances.

With her sparkling wit, Joanna Trollope casts a clever, satirical eye on the tales of Elinor and Marianne Dashwood. Re-imagining Sense and Sensibility in a fresh, modern new light, she spins the novel's romance, bonnets, and betrothals into a wonderfully witty coming-of-age story about the stuff that really makes the world go around. For when it comes to money, some things never change. . . 

Blurb taken from Goodreads.

 

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A few years ago I found out that several authors were taking part in The Austen Project, where they were re-writing Austen's most popular novels for a modern audience. I'm a huge fan of Jane Austen, and Pride and Prejudice is my all-time favourite book. However, I also know that her work, as with other classics, can be quite difficult to read, as the language has an entirely different rhythm. For this reason, I thought this project was a fantastic idea with the potential to bring the beautiful stories to different audiences, and I really hoped it was done to the standard it deserved.

I first read the modern Northanger Abbey a few years ago, and enjoyed it, although I don't think it was a good as I was expecting. I found it a little dull, which was a real shame as I absolutely adore Northanger Abbey. Next, I read Eligible, the Pride and Prejudice retelling, and I enjoyed it a lot more,  with it making me laugh out loud in places. It went to the extreme of modernity though,  which, although amusing, wasn't necessarily the most successful take.

I was therefore unsure what to expect when I opened up Joanna Trollope's Sense and Sensibility. Would it be an unexciting rewrite, or an amusing and silly narrative that didn't quite ring true to Austen's work? Truthfully, I think this falls somewhere in the middle, and that's exactly how it should be.

I absolutely loved this book. It stayed true to Jane Austen's beloved novel, and enhanced the story and the characters to made it readable for a wider audience. You do not have to like classics, or Austen, to enjoy this book. It's easy to read but unbelievably close to the original story; I flew through it, and it reminded me why I love the story so much. It was wonderfully modern in the most subtle ways, and would be a perfect gateway for readers who want to dip their toe into Austen without committing completely.

Beautiful.

Rating: ✫✫✫✫✫

SPOILER ALERT

The Original

For those of you who don't know the original story very well, here's the bare bones:

After the death of their father, Elinor, Marianne and Margaret Dashwood find themselves, along with their mother, ousted from their childhood home. Finding themselves in a small cottage, they try to adapt to their new lives. Throw in a few bachelors (not all of them eligible), a secret engagement, and a whole lot of unrequited love, and things become increasingly complicated.

I remember the first time I read Sense and Sensibility. It was the first Austen I read without any prior knowledge of the story, and I was expecting to find it complicated and difficult to follow. I was pleasantly surprised by how easy I found the story to get into. 

The beauty of Sense and Sensibility is that it is a love story; many love stories in fact. And love is a subject that is timeless. We can all relate to love. Romantic love, familial love, and all the other kinds of love there are. In Sense and Sensibility, we see all the different kinds of love, and more. We see heartbreak, and uneasiness, and every other emotion that humans are capable of. I can't imagine a book more suitable for a modern retelling.

The Adaptation

This adaptation is exactly what I was hoping for when I heard about The Austen Project. 

It stays incredibly true to the original story, and I genuinely forgot it was set in the modern day for most of the story. Every event happens in almost exactly the same way that I remember it in Austen's novel, with some obvious changes made. Bill Brandon drives up and down the country with ease, and  the sleazy Wills had links to drugs. In the early nineteenth century, it would not have take half as much to shock and horrify people, and I appreciate that the author needed to amplify the story to give it just the right sort of shock factor for a modern audience! I liked the little updates, which made me feel like I was in on a secret as to the original story.

What I loved most about Trollope's adaptation was how she really made the characters shine. Austen always wrote such real and relatable characters, and that's one of the reasons I love her so much as an author. Trollope really took these essence of these characters and built them for a new audience, exploring their emotions in a way we don't see as openly in the original story. Elinor is the character that really holds the story together, taking care of all the different characters whilst attempting to maintain her own composure. Although we see this in the original Sense and Sensibility, Trollope really emphasised the difficulties of a modern woman with the weight of the world on their shoulders, and I empathised with her character so much more for it. Her relationship with Bill Brandon was also one of my favourite touches; they have a platonic friendship that actually really complemented the story, and that added the extra narrative that made the book so easy to read.

I cannot fault any part of the translation from classic to modern retelling.

The Verdict

I spent all my time reading this book absolutely devouring it, and yet waiting for the moment when something happened to let it down. It felt absolutely too good to be true. And yet it ended, and I was even more in love with it than whilst reading.

The story relates beautifully to a modern audience, and the way Trollope worked with the characters was perfection. They are entirely as we know them from the original book, and yet they are enhanced to make them more relatable and intriguing. I felt the laughter and the heartache in equal measures.

This has to be one of the most faithful adaptations of a book I've ever seen, and I'm so grateful to Joanna Trollope for bringing it to life.