Sense & Sensibility

Kate Reading's clever narration of Joanna Trollope's most recent novel is one of its greatest pleasures. A successful novelist of modern manners, Trollope has transferred Jane Austen's novel of the same title to the modern age. Whether you find it delightful or tiresome will depend on how believable you find the transfer, but no matter what, Reading's take on the book is a delight. She amusingly voices everyone from self-involved teenaged girl to blustering old gentleman and drawling Eton graduate, and in between narrates the text in her signature clear, full voice. Light listening done beautifully. A.C.S. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine

June 10, 2013
In this funny, well-paced Mormon-themed take on Austen's often retold classic, by romance writer Jamison (Persuasion: A Latter-day Tale), Emma is a 23-year-old receptionist in modern-day Vienna, Va., who tries to parlay her penchant for meddling and doling advice into a career as a life coach. After welcoming pretty but insecure nanny Harri into the group of 20-somethings she knows from the local Mormon community, Emma misinterprets signals from Phil Elton and attempts to pair the two offâwith disastrous results. Meanwhile, former classmate Jenna Farley, now a country music star, comes home for Christmas, making Emma reflect on her own lackluster accomplishments. She's briefly distracted by the arrival of Hank Weston, who seems perfect and appears to like her. Jamison's writing is engaging and full of vivid, amusing lines; a croissant is "the cotton candy version of bread," for instance. Jamison's religious perspective never comes off as awkward or didactic. The author only slips toward the end, when a saccharine resolution pales compared to the riveting angst that came before it. (Aug.) Brit author Trollope brings Austen's classic into the new millennium, with mixed results. After Henry Dashwood dies, the Dashwood sisters and their mother are given a house by kindly rich relatives John and Mary Middleton, while the estate that was the Dashwood home passes to the sisters' henpecked half-brother John and his status-conscious wife Fanny. Elinor, the responsible eldest Dashwood sister, is smitten with Fanny's brother Edward Ferrars, though she hasn't heard from him since the move, and he, unbeknownst to her, has been dating the daffy Lucy Steele. Delicate, dramatic, and gorgeous, middle sister Marianne falls for eye-candy John "Wills" Willoughby, though he treads on her heart by publicly rejecting her. All this is conveyed in formal prose with equally stiff dialogue, which makes Trollope's offhand mentions of laptops and Range Rovers somewhat jarring. And yet, Trollope's faithfulness to the tropes of this story keep her from letting the plot jibe with the modern world, though she does wink at that: "You're like those nineteenth-century novels where marriage is the only career option for a middle-class girl." The book's resolution for Marianne seems especially unlikely in this era, and could have benefitted from a more malleable adaptation. Agent: Joy Harris, Joy Harris Agency.

August 1, 2013

Right now reboots are all the rage, what with Shakespeare in California kitchens (Joss Whedon's Much Ado about Nothing) and Superman sans his red trunks (Man of Steel). Now it's Jane Austen's turn. In the first in a projected series in which Austen's novels will be updated by contemporary authors, Trollope is a good (and bankable) choice to lead off. With almost 20 novels to her credit, she certainly outdistances our Jane, at least in terms of quantity, and her satires on British society have invited comparison with Austen in the past. Trollope's take on Austen's Sense and Sensibility hews closely to the original plot, with some characters, e.g., youngest sister Margaret, blossoming in the retelling. While some equivalents (the gift of a horse becomes the gift of a motor car) seem almost too pat, the satire directed at these Thames Valley girls (at one point Elinor huffily defriends Edward Ferrars) and their elders largely hits the sweet spot. VERDICT This will more than satisfy Trollope fans as well as most Austen devotees; with its sprightly mix of the old and new told in streamlined prose (most of the paragraphs might be tweeted), this twice-told tale highlights the issue of what has changed in 200 years, and what has remained constant.--Bob Lunn, Kansas City, MO

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2013
Six best-selling modern writers were commissioned by the Austen Project to update the classic novels. Matchless chronicler of Middle England Trollope (Daughters in Law, 2011, etc.) was paired with Sense & Sensibility, which now morphs into upmarket chick-lit. Austen fans will be familiar with the story of the Dashwood girls--sensible Elinor, beautiful Marianne and young, spirited Margaret--who, with their mother, are cruelly cast out of the family mansion when their father dies. Trollope adds interior-design values to Austen's preoccupations--sex, money and class--by pitting the Dashwoods' shabby-chic taste (faded damask curtains; pretty but chipped china) against the stripped-down, inappropriately modern style of the thoughtless cousins who evict them. Taken in by another wealthy cousin with another decaying mansion, they move to a modern house on his estate--oh, the suffering. Trollope offers occasional flashes of Austen-esque wit, but more often, her writing, though immensely experienced, lacks the grace of the original. Without it, the girls and their misadventures in pursuit of romance and financial security seem less subtle and charming, more foolish and conventional. Marianne falls for a rotter instead of solid Col. Brandon; Elinor "ha[s] feelings for" nice-but-weak Ed, who seems to get engaged to someone else. Their various happy endings bring neatness but less joy than Austen's. A questionable remake of a classic, honorably undertaken, but coarser and less comic than the original--unsurprisingly.

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September 1, 2013
Music is listened to with ear buds attached to iPods, gossip is passed via texts on smartphones, and scandal is exploited through viral videos on YouTube. Other than that, Trollope's reworking of Austen's classic stays true to the original. The Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne, are still hopeless and helpless in affairs of the heart. Marianne still endangers her health and reputation by pining over the nefarious John Wills Willoughby, while Elinor still sends and receives mixed messages from the equally hapless Edward Ferrars. Variously supported and undermined by their more financially secure and socially connected relativesJohn and Fanny Dashwood and the entire Millington clan down in Devonthe Dashwood women somehow still manage to have things turn out all right in the end. By updating Austen's first published novel to reflect modern slang, dress, and conveniences, Trollope brings an accessibility to this romantic comedy of manners that may appeal to the Bridget Jones crowd. True Austen fans, however, will undoubtedly still prefer the original.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)