Krishna
Jane Austin is known best for her Pride and Prejudice, of course, but this one is almost as well known. I liked the other one, as you can see from the review.
Is this as good as the other one? Read on.
It has the style (‘stile’ as the author spells it) and feel of the more famous Pride and Prejudice. It also has similar construction and so feels like a lightweight Pride and Prejudice. It is written in the same old style where characters speak very formally and pedantically. But for all that, the story is almost as good.
John Dashwood inherits a fortune and ill-treats his step mother and his step sisters. His wife is even meaner and stops him from giving the measly aid that he thought of giving. The stepmom has three daughters. Elinor falls in love with a spineless but rich man with no taste and her sister Marianne does not like Edward, the boy.
When they move over to another part of the country they meet Sir John Middleton, chivalrous but very chatty, Lady Middleton who is boring, Mrs Jennings, the mother of Lady Middleton who was rather crude and ribald and the “old” (he was thirty five after all) Colonel Brandon, reserved and polished, who makes an impression in young Marianne’s mind as he listens to her sing.
In the meanwhile Marianne goes out to the hills, injures her leg in the rain and is carried home by a dashing young man called Willoughby. Her sister feels sorry for Colonel Brandon.
Meanwhile, suddenly Willoughby disappears without explanation and a crying Marianne refuses to explain.
Edward from the original family comes to visit and is secretly in love with Elinor. And they learn that the boy from the home they left is not planning to marry Elinor but a frumpy, stupid blond woman.
Elinor learns of Colonel Brandon’s story from him himself when he visits her and finds Marianne distraught. He was in love with Eliza, a girl he grew up with, but she was forced to marry his brother. They planned to elope but were betrayed by a maid. He was banished and she married his brother in a loveless and abusive marriage. She ran away and “led a life of sin”. Brandon had enlisted in the army to give her space and found, upon his return, her missing. He finally finds her in a sanatorium, penniless and about to die of consumption. After looking after her, he adopts her only daughter (conceived in sin) and brings her up. She was seduced and left helpless by Willoughby.
You have to get past the old language. Leave aside exotic spellings given like ‘expence’ or ‘croud’. You have to remember that a character saying ‘I have always been gay’ means something totally different from what you would understand from a contemporary novel.
Well, Willoughby is exposed and Marianne is crushed. Elinor is done great favours by Colonel Brandon and still she does not understand that he loves her. When Marianne is near death’s bed and Brandon goes to get Elinor’s mother, Willoughby visits her and presents his side of the story.
Everything ends well but has a feel of abrupt ending. Everything works out very well suddenly, in the last fifteen pages or so. There is that old world outlook where Marianne almost dies when she is jilted. The main surprise is Willoughby’s confession and how the book ends.
Not a bad book to read considering when this was written and if you enjoyed Pride and Prejudice you will like it.
7/ 10
– – Krishna