Sense & Sensibility by Joanna Trollope

(Thank you to the publisher and TLC Book Tours for providing me with a copy of this book!)

about book:

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. Reimagining 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. . . .

my thoughts:

A retelling of a Jane Austen classic?  Hmmm.  This could spell trouble.  Luckily, with Joanna Trollope at the helm, this revamped version of Sense & Sensibility did not fail - in fact, it rather sailed (swimmingly, I might add).
 
Joanna Trollope's modernization of the Austen classic, Sense & Sensibility, is superb.  I found myself once again lost in the Dashwood family's dramas and misfortunes.  Except this time round, instead of reading about the Regency era, I was reading about the now.  Trollope has set her book in the 21st century and has included all the newfangled technology that everyone is obsessed with using - iPods, cell phones,Twitter, and YouTube.  I have to admit it was pretty weird reading about the Dashwood sisters tweeting.  However, that was as far off course as Trollope would veer - she remained true to Austen's original story lines (hurrah!).   My only quibble was that the characters did seem a bit more exaggerated than their original counterparts - of course, I did find it rather comical at times.  And there was the slightly outdated feel of the story at times - setting it in the 21st century did make it feel a bit disconnected (only just a little).  Cripes, that sounds a tad negative, when the truth is that I really enjoyed reading the book.  I just sort of wished that Trollope had updated the Dashwood's ideals and goals, too.  I mean it was rather hard imaging that none of them could get a job or make ends meet on their own and that their only mission was to find a suitable companion.  Seriously!?!  In the Regency era I can understand that this behavior was commonplace, but nowadays it just seems rather absurd.  Okay, so maybe the retelling had some problems, but mainly I found the book to be a familiar and comforting read.  So, I would recommend this book to Austen fans (if only to find out their take on this retelling of such a popular classic).

Here's the link to the TLC Book Tour page for: Sense & Sensibility

And now I'm off to finish reading The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon (the 14th book in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith).  I just love these books and am already immersed in Mma Ramotswe's latest cases. 

Thank you to the publisher and TLC Book Tours for providing me with a copy of this book!