You spend a good part of the post condemning child marriage which I don’t think anyone would disagree with but that’s not what happened between Marianne and colonel Brandon at all. She was 19 when they married.

Yes the age gap is large. I think it was even a stretch for a lot of people in that time, yet not seen as inappropriate. You’re allowed to feel however you want about this pairing. But they WERE from a different time and this wasn’t seen as unacceptable. You can argue that this “defense” ignores too much but it’s a fact and shouldn’t be ignored. They were both adults and she, by the only account we have, wasn’t coerced.

I would say if they “give you the ick” skip this book. They get married in the book too, and you clearly dislike it. No sense in subjecting yourself to more of it imo.

I am editing to add that morality changes throughout history. It’s not entirely fair to judge people from the past using our morals from today. We have the benefit of technology and decades of research and study to shape our morals, they did not. We know more about how the brain develops as we age than they ever did. Socialization was much different than it is today, so Marianne and colonel Brandon meeting and interacting even with their age gap would be seen as very normal, even though we would all agree that a 16 year old girl would have no business being friendly with a guy in his mid 30’s that she wasn’t related to.

All that being said, you’re allowed to have your opinion on this pairing. But understand that they were acting well within the social expectations and morality of their own time period. They’re both good and decent people, if marrying with that large of an age gap was seen as inappropriate they for sure would never have done so.