Leicester Ladies Bookworms are one of the groups taking part in the Austen project. Here, group member Aimee Packwood tells us why Joanna Trollope’s Sense and Sensibility misses the mark for her.
I’m a huge Jane Austen fan. So I’ll admit that when I was asked to read Sense and Sensibility by Joanna Trollope I was a little apprehensive. It was never my favourite of Austen’s work, so I was willing to give it a go.
Had I never read any Austen, I think I would have found it an enjoyable novel. And as an Austen adaptation it very nearly works. But I wasn’t quite sold. Trollope’s characterisation is excellent, with the exception of Fanny who I think is a bit overplayed. The attempt to make it relevant to a modern audience doesn’t quite come off; money just isn’t a motivater for marriage anymore.
I would have liked Trollope to keep the same themes, but change the motivation; I would have liked to see Willoughby as a struggling actor shacking up with a film director, or a young MP having an affair with a cabinet minister. The book could still have explored ideas of being trapped and feeling like there was no choice – when of course there is, it’s just that the choice is unpalatable to Willoughby – as well as family obligation, but with motivations that ring true to today’s audience. The constraints of the characters of the girls are still as relevant today, but the society that they are operating in has changed, and trying to keep that the same means the whole thing feels hollow; and as if Austen is no longer relevant.
I do feel that Austen is timeless, and it is a shame that Trollope has made her seem outdated by being too literal. As attempts to modernise and make Sense and Sensibility relevant, I’m afraid it’s not quite there.
