Why did it take me so long to finally read Sense and Sensibility?
How one book evaded me for many years whilst the film version was a constant watch.
When I was at college I attempted to read Sense and Sensibility, I checked it out of the library and was determined to break into my first Jane Austen novel. A few days later I had given up, although I loved the film, I couldn’t get into the book and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t connect with the words. I reluctantly returned the book less than a week after I borrowed it. I felt disappointed that I couldn’t get into it, but it just didn’t seem to hold my attention or teenage mind at the time. This one failed attempt to read a Jane Austen book led me to bypassing her whole collection for many years, I had no inkling or desire to read another one and then something changed.
Fast-forward 15 years later, and I am (to the amazement of my teenage self) three quarters of the way through Sense and Sensibility. I had brought the Penguin Classic cloth bound book last year, it sat patiently on my bookshelf, awaiting its moment of glory for me to pick it up and read it. I had chosen this particular Jane Austen book because as I mentioned previously, the Ang Lee / Emma Thompson film is my favourite adaptation, so I thought this would be a good gatekeeper try again and reopen me to the world of Jane Austen novels.
It did take me a while to get into it, I felt like my teenage experience held me back initially and then I felt it needed my full and undivided attention, so I started reading it and then stopped and then started again. But eventually I got into the swing of things and everything aligned.
I feel completely lost in the world that Jane has created, and equally I have found it intriguing to see what had or had not made it into the Sense and Sensibility film. I started to recognise speeches and plot moments that were woven into the film and bits that were not and the characters that didn’t make it onto the celluloid.
Emma Thompson wrote the screen play and I found it really interesting regarding how she edited the text and made decisions on who and what chapters to cut. She mentions it briefly here in her excellent Golden Globe acceptance speech (it’s worth a watch) for Best Motion Picture Screenplay.
Sense and Sensibility - Emma Thompson's Golden Globe speech, 1996
Book to screen adaptions feel like a challenging process to go through, the original source material is so well known, and I feel like there is probably a lot of pressure to get it right, to know when to cut things or people to move the plot along and when to focus more intently on certain things as a plot device. Some adaptations soar and some sink, getting the balance right to appeal to a film audience made up of avid fans and newcomers is a tricky tightrope act and I admire Emma’s moxie, hard work and determination. Here is a small exert from Lindsay Doran’s (the film's producer) introduction explaining the process, which is a part of the book Sense and Sensibility : The Screenplay and Diaries by Emma Thompson.
“Amy Pascal and Gareth Wigan at Columbia Pictures saw the light. We showed them the first episode of ‘Thompson’ which they adored, and we convinced them that Sense and Sensibility, while considered one of Jane Austen's 'lesser novels' (to this day, I don't understand that), would make a rich and entertaining film.
Emma took the role of screenwriter seriously from the beginning. She not only knew how to think in Jane Austen's language, but she understood the rhythms of good scene writing and how to convey a sense of setting. Like all good screenwriters (What do you mean by "good"?' asks Professor Kowenhoeven in my head), she didn't object to rewriting a scene again and again when it was required, and she wasn't afraid to cut a line or a scene or a series of scenes when she saw that they weren't working. Her experience as an actress served her well when it came to writing clever and efficient dialogue (you'll notice that no character says 'Why are you looking at me like that?' or "Why are you telling me all this?" even though there are ample opportunities for them to do so), but it also helped her to understand when silence could say more than any spoken word.
In the years that followed, Emma would make a film and write a draft, make a film and write a draft, over and over again. Sometimes she'd make a film and write three drafts. Through it all, there were notes from Columbia and notes from Mirage. The Columbia executives were particularly (and rightly) concerned that we keep the story focused on the relationship between the two sisters so that it wouldn't seem like a movie about a couple of women waiting around for men. And Sydney was ever vigilant about making the language and values of the late eighteenth century accessible to the average twentieth-century movie-goer. At one point he said to me, 'You're too close to all this, Lindsay. You know the book too well. Most people won't even know that Norland Park and Barton Park are houses - they'll think they're brothers.'
But eventually, after Emma had appeared in seven films and had written probably twice that many drafts, we had a script we were ready to show to directors. And now a new search began - where would we find a director.”
Knowing about the process and reading Emma Thompson's The Screenplay and Diaries only strengthens my admiration for her.
I am still deeply enthralled by the film and now reading the book I am interested to watch it again as I feel like I will have a different perspective of it, as at the moment they feel like two separate entities.
I have lost hours reading Sense and Sensibility and feel completely transported to another era, the use of description, narrative and emotion convey the story of the Dashwood’s and their fortunes beautifully. The world that Jane has created is rich and her writing is intelligent, humorous, heart-breaking and poignant.
I feel for certain that I will read another book by Jane Austen now, and it won’t take me another 15 years this time. I think my impression of the books as impregnable as a teenager stood with me for a long time, but I am glad that this book has broken the spell.
Is there a book that evaded you and you have now read it later in life? How was that experience for you? How do you feel about book to film adaptations? Do you have a favourite Jane Austen novel?