Simple words cannot express how excited I am about seeing the new version of Sense & Sensibility, which begins this Sunday on PBS.

Sisters Elinor (Hattie Morahan, The Golden Compass) and Marianne Dashwood (Charity Wakefield, Jane Eyre) have opposite approaches when it comes to the pursuit of love. One is tempered and rational, the other impulsive and full of youthful passion. The sisters attract a trio of suitors — handsome Edward Ferrars (Dan Stevens, The Line of Beauty), heroic Colonel Brandon (David Morrissey, State of Play), and effusive John Willoughby (Dominic Cooper, The History Boys). But are the men as genuine as they seem? A romantic odyssey full of seduction and abandonment unfolds in Andrew Davies’s bold adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic novel. (Courtesy PBS)

Sense & Sensibility is not my favorite, nor my least favorite of Jane Austen’s novels. I love it for the nuance of character and the complexity of the story that she told. Because it was one of the first she wrote (and the very first one published), her style wasn’t yet as crisp as in later novels, and it does tend to ramble a bit. My mom told me at Christmas that she tried listening to the audiobook, but gave it up because the narrative just went on and on and on, and since she didn’t know the story, because she was just listening to it driving in and around town—fifteen minutes here, twenty minutes there—she couldn’t keep track of who was who and what was going on. So she asked me to give her the five-minute version of the story.

It took almost twenty.

 I’m sure you’re all here looking for my comparison of the actors in the new version to the actors in the 1995 Emma Thompson version. However, I’ll be doing that for next week and it’ll be over on the Jane Austen Today blog!

So what am I looking forward to in this new adaptation?

First and foremost, I’m looking forward to seeing the roles filled by actors who were cast because they actually fit the descriptions of the characters, not because of their star-power. Yes, I love the Emma Thompson version. But Eleanor is supposed to be nineteen years old when the story opens. Emma Thompson was thirty-six when she made this film. I’ve never been a fan of Hugh Grant (one of these days, I’ll explain why—it’s because of the first movie I ever saw him in: The Lady and the Highwayman). Kate Winslet was around nineteen or twenty, so she was as close to the right age for Marianne (seventeen) as one could hope. She was wonderful in the role (as were all of the actors in this version . . . with the exception of Hugh Grant).

I know there are some people out there who feel as adamantly about Alan Rickman in the role of Colonel Brandon as they do about Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy. So, since I’m 100 percent in favor of equal opportunity, I’ll go ahead and offend the Alan Rickman lovers to say I feel he was completely miscast as Colonel Brandon. (Side note trivia: the first name Christopher was made up for that version of the movie.) Yes, he’s a wonderful actor, and did a good job in the role. But he wasn’t the Colonel Brandon who appears in the book. The biggest problem is that Colonel Brandon is meant to be thirty-five years old. Alan Rickman was forty-nine. So I’m really interested to see not only Andrew Davies’s interpretation of the characters, but how actors who are closer to the characters’ ages interpret (and look in) them.

(Yes, there really is a duel that takes place in the story—only there, it’s offstage.)

So, anyway, back to the new version and what I’m looking forward to.

Andrew Davies has apparently beefed-up the men’s roles—and I’m not talking just physically. One of Davies’s gripes about Jane Austen’s stories (and he’s studied them quite a bit) is that she didn’t really understand her male characters—didn’t give them enough of a presence. Which is why in Davies’s adaptations, there is usually at least one scene that doesn’t appear in the novel, because it involves only the male characters interacting with each other.

Another aspect I’m highly anticipating are the costumes and sets. From what I’ve seen in the still images online, they look spectacular!

I don’t know about you, but just pulling these images and writing about the new adaptation has whetted my appetite, and I can’t wait to watch it. I hope you will too!

Links of Interest
Interview with screenwriter Andrew Davies (see #11)
Listing on IMDb.com
Main page at PBS’s Masterpiece Classics site
Wikipedia Article on Sense & Sensibility
Full Text of Sense & Sensibility on the Republic of Pemberley

For more information on Jane Austen and all of her works:
The Jane Austen Society of North America
The Republic of Pemberley