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Boring is a word to avoid when describing a poor novel. Tedious is more acceptable. Whatever word you would like to use, Sense and Sensibility is a real drag to finish.

Judgment shall be reserved on Jane Austen’s overall writing, as this was her first full-fledged attempt. Pride and Prejudice is considered a better book by critics and readers alike.

The age of the work must also be taken into account. Austen wrote in the first part of the 19th century, and the middle to the back half of that century was when the novel as a piece of art truly came into form.

But there is no getting around it; this book is dull. The characters are dull, the plot is inconsequential, and the writing feels clumsy. Run-of-the-mill descriptions are too wordy, overdone. Nothing is succinct.

Marriane and Elinor Dashwood are a couple of hoity toity sisters: punctilious, officious, and…boring. The only characters with any personality, Sir John Middleton and Mrs. Jennings are not reserved or mannerly enough for the Dashwoods.

Willoughby and Marriane’s unsensual connection is unremarkable. Elinor’s wet blanket approach to everything puts an end to any hope for an engaging narrative. Each character suspiciously speaks and sounds like the narrator and one another. The romance is muted. The action is less than meager.

The obligatory ending does nothing to lift things from the doldrums. Everything comes out a little too, just so...

There is a quote regarding the historical novelist Patrick O’Brian, which goes something like this: He is Jane Austen at sea.

Sense and Sensibility contains none of the humor and wit of the seafaring novels in the Aubrey-Maturin series; and as far as action? This is sitting on a tuffet, while O’Brian is Odysseus himself.