Sense and Sensibility

I had some catching up to do, so I listened to four chapters on Librivox.org and then read four chapters this afternoon to bring me up to chapter 34 (is that where you're at, Ginger?)

I've seen the movie with Kate Winslett and Emma Thompson a number of times, and I thought the movie exaggerated the coldheartedness of the oldest brother, John, who had been requested by his dying father to take care of his mother and sisters. But the book goes even further - in his guilt at neglecting them, he's misreading the signs and trying to marry off Elinor to rich Colonel Brandon, and persuading Elinor (and himself) that kind Mrs. Jennings intends to leave them some money when she dies! How he can think that she would do that when she has her own daughters, and when he himself won't give them anything, is beyond me. He's a strange piece of work.