This is another in the series of Jane Austen-related retellings of her novels through the viewpoint of the main male character. I enjoyed it just as much as I enjoyed reading the diaries of Mr. Darcy, Mr. Knightley, Edmund Bertram and Captain Wentworth.
One difference with this diary is the large amount of back story that is explored with Colonel Brandon. The diary starts in 1778 - 18 years before the main action of Sense and Sensibility. In fact, we don't even hear the mention of the Dashwoods until pg. 120 or meet them until several pages later. What we do get is the story of the colonel's ill-fated love affair as a young man, how he ended up in the army & in India and how he comes back to England again. I find that I need to go back to Austen's original story to see how much of this information was there and how much came from the current author.
In the other Austen novels, there was clearly one main female character and, correspondingly, one main male character. Jane Bennett (Pride and Prejudice), lovely as she is, is there to serve as a foil for Elizabeth. In Sense and Sensibility, we have the two elder sisters - sensible Elinor and emotional Marianne. I found it interesting that Grange chose to focus on the Colonel Brandon-Marianne story when, to my eyes, Elinor is the main character. I'm left to wonder if Grange will ever give us Edward Ferrars' Diary. I'd certainly be interested in finding out more about the Ferrars family and how Edward came to find himself entering into a secret engagement with Lucy Steele.
In summary, if you love Jane Austen novels, I recommend these books by Amanda Grange to extend your Austen horizons.
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