Sense and Sensibility

First novel in the book. I’ll skip the next as I’ve previously read Pride and Prejudice.

I liked it, I think in general if you like the one you’ll like the other. A few quotes, I’ve done my best to not include spoilers:

1. “‘I could not be happy with a man whose taste did not in every point coincide with my own.’ [...] ‘the more I know of the world, the more am I convinced that I shall never see a man whom I can really love. I require so much!’”

2. “Mrs Jennings was a widow, with an ample jointure. She had only two daughters, both of whom she had lived to see respectably married, and had now therefore nothing to do but to marry all the rest of the world.”

3. “It would be an excellent match, for he was rich and she was handsome.”

4. “‘A woman of seven and twenty,’ said Marianne, after pausing a moment, ‘can never hope to feel or inspire affection again [...]‘”

5. “‘Brandon is just the kind of man,’ said Willoughby one day, when they were talking of him together, ‘whom everybody speaks well of, and nobody cares about; whom all are delighted to see, and nobody remembers to talk to.’”

6. “‘I have no wish to be distinguished; and I have every reason to hope I never shall. Thank Heaven! I cannot be forced into genious and eloquence.’
‘You have no ambition, I well know. Your wishes are all moderate.’
‘As moderate of those of the rest of the world, I believe. I wish as well as everybody else to be perfectly happy; but like everybody else it must be in my own way. Greatness will not make me so.’”

7. “‘Shyness is only the effect of a sense of inferiority in some way or other. If I could persuade myself that my manners were perfectly easy and graceful, I should not be shy.’”

8. “‘How charming it will be,’ said Charlotte, ‘when he [her husband, Mr Palmer] is in Parliament! – won’t it? How I shall laugh! It will be so ridiculous to see all his letters directed to him with an MP – But do you know, he says, he will never frank for me? He declares he won’t. Don’t you, Mr Palmer?’ [note that his wife calls him Mr Palmer]
Mr Palmer took no notice of her.
‘He cannot bear writing, you know,’ she continued; ‘he says it is quite shocking.’
‘No,’ said he, ‘I never said anything so irrational. Don’t palm all your abuses of language upon me.’
‘There now; you see how droll he is. This is always the way with him! Sometimes he won’t speak to me for half a day together, and then he comes out with something so droll – all about anything in the world.’ [...] ‘Mr Palmer is just the kind of man I like.’”

9. “‘I hope he will come tonight. It will be all to one a better match for your sister. Two thousand a year without debt or drawback – except the little love-child; aye, I had forgot her; but she may be ‘prenticed out at small cost, then what does it signify? Delaford is a nice place, I can tell you; exactly what I call a nice old-fashioned place, full of comforts and conveniences; quite shut in with great garden walls that are covered with the best fruit trees in the country; and such a mulberry tree in one corner! Lord! how Charlotte and I did stuff the only time we were there! Then, there is a dovecote, some delight stew ponds, and a very pretty canal; and everything, in short, that one could wish for; and, moreover, it is close to the church, and only a quarter of a mile from the turnpike road, so ’tis never dull, for if you only go and sit up in an old yew arbour behind the house, you may see all the carriages that pass along.’ [...]” [notice anything missing in that explanation as to why that man was a better match for the sister than the other guy? If you need a hint, go back and read 8 again.]

10. “‘A man who has nothing to do with his own time has no conscience in his intrusion on that of others.’”

11. “There was a kind of cold hearted selfishness on both sides, which mutually attracted them; and they sympathised with each other in an insipid propriety of demeanour, and a general want of understanding.”

12. “Elinor agreed to it all, for she did not think he deserved the compliment of rational opposition.”

13. [they are discussing a marriage:] “Elinor, smiling at the grave and decisive importance of her brother’s tone, calmly replied, ‘The lady, I suppose, has no choice in the the affair.’
‘Choice! How do you mean?’
‘I only mean, that I suppose from your manner of speaking, it must be the same to ['A'] whether she marry ['B'] or ['C'].’
‘Certainly, there can be no difference; for ['A'] will now to all intents and purposes be considered as the eldest son – and as to anything else, they are both very agreeable young men, I do not know that one is superior to the other.’”