Age difference

Were you surprised by their ages? Specifically that Marianne was only 16 while Colonel Brandon was 35 and that their mother was only 40 (only 5 years older than Brandon!)

This did surprise me. I knew that Col. Brandon was much older than Marianne but for some reason i didn't think it was almost twenty years!! And I had no idea that her mom was sooo young. Crazy! So as I was reading and found out that Col. Brandon was only a few years younger than Mrs. Dashwood and wanting to date her middle child I found myself thinking "Creepy." I then had to remind myself that I like him and then pretend he was 25 or something.
-Annegirl

We need to remember that this was written in 1811. Times were much different than now. We now live a lot longer than they did. Marianne's station in life was such that she couldn't be choosy. Don't forget she fell down a hill and the first person to pick her up that could recite poems was her first choice. If I had fallen down a hill and the first guy that picked me up, I would have been much choosier than Marianne. I probably would have fallen down a few more times to see what my options were.

I think that after seeing the movie our concepts about what their ages should be is a little skewed. In the book they describe Edward as not being handsome. I think Hugh Grant is handsome. So, it just depends on how you choose to view it in your head.

-Stampin_Maniac

That seriously made me laugh so hard. You're right though. It didn't matter how she described the characters... I saw the actors/actresses from the movie. (the Hugh Grant/Emma Thompson/Kate Winslet etc one).

-Annegirl

I guess that when one really thinks about it today that would be a little different but like Karen said "times were different". But I found it interesting that in the movie and the book I didn't make the connection of such age difference (except in the movie when Marianne referred to the Colonel's rheumatism) because I wanted Elinor to marry Edward and Marianne to marry the Colonel so much.
-Bookworm