Persuasion

by Jane Austen

Gillian Beer (Notes)

'In Persuasion, Jane Austen is beginning to discover that the world is larger, more mysterious, and more romantic than she had supposed' Virginia Woolf

Jane Austen's moving late novel of missed opportunities and second chances centres on Anne Elliot, no longer young and with few romantic prospects. Eight years earlier, she was persuaded by others to break off her engagement to poor, handsome naval captain Frederick Wentworth. What happens when they meet again is movingly told in Austen's last completed novel. Set in the fashionable societies of Lyme Regis and Bath, Persuasion is a brilliant satire of vanity and pretension, and a mature, tender love story tinged with heartache.

Edited with an Introduction by Gillian Beer

• ISBN10: 0141439688
• ISBN13: 9780141439686
• Publish Date: 27 March 2003 (first published 4 April 1818)
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 8 February 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
• Imprint: Penguin Classics
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 288
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780141439686

Reviews

[Berls]

This is one of the only Jane Austen books (maybe only?) that I hadn't read so I'm glad that Stephanie suggested we do a buddy read. It was far from my favorite, but I did ultimately enjoy it.

Three stars is low for a Jane Austen from me and there are lots of factors that may have contributed to the lower rating. 1 - we started our buddy read on or around they day Trumpers stormed the capital. So, ya know, not exactly in the best mindset. 2 - my personal life was also imploding with stress, so again, not the best mindset. 3 - expectations were HIGH. Not only have I heard many people consider this their favorite Austen, but I have several favorites to compare it to. Without those factors, I probably would have given it 4 stars, like Stephanie did.

I do really like the heroine, Anne. And it is the classic version of one of my favorite tropes - a second chance romance. It has all the things you can come to expect from an Austen novel. Annoying relatives, duplicitous men, romantic letters, and a very sweet romance. For me, though, the pacing was off. We started really super slow. Once things got going they stayed pretty steady, until the last couple chapter where it was a whirlwind and then it was over.

Since finishing the book today, I have already watched one movie version (1995) and enjoyed it, though it did alter a few things. I think I will try to get in another version (because I saw it has Anthony Steward Head and I love him from Buffy & Merlin). The fact that I do want to watch the movies is a sign that I enjoyed it and perhaps I'll bump my rating to 3.5 stars.

[brokentune]

Now they were as strangers; nay, worse than strangers, for they could never become acquainted. It was a perpetual estrangement.

When I first read Persuasion, I must have been out of my mind, preoccupied, or distracted with something because how else could I not have enjoyed this book back then as much as I have enjoyed it now?

Austen's last book is a masterpiece of subtlety and quiet power.

Anne Elliot is not as fierce or outspoken as my other favourite Austen heroines but she is such an awesomely strong character in her own way. She knows her own mind but also takes on advice from others. This ability be persuaded is, of course, at the heart of this story, and Austen plays with the concept of persuasion throughout the book - culminating in a debate between Anne and Captain Harville over whether men or women suffer longer after the loss of love. A debate which is overheard and influences a letter that within Austen's works is eclipsed only be the declarations of Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice.

There are a number of elements in this story that are similar to Austen's other books - the focus on women in Georgian society being confined to their roles as wives and daughters, the class snobbery, the importance of reputation, financial mismanagement, the plotting of romantic entanglements for position and wealth.

Austen pokes fun and she admonishes -

Men have had every advantage of us in telling their own story. Education has been theirs in so much higher a degree; the pen has been in their hands. I will not allow books to prove anything.

She does it quietly, by implication more often than by expressing it in words. It's a subtlety that needs some focus to absorb it, but that is ever so rewarding.

Despite this, Persuasion for me will also be the book I will remember for Jane Austen calling an off-page character a ...

He had, in fact, though his sisters were now doing all they could for him, by calling him “poor Richard,” been nothing better than a thick-headed, unfeeling, unprofitable Dick Musgrove, who had never done anything to entitle himself to more than the abbreviation of his name, living or dead.

[celinenyx]

Lovely novel - and the fifth Jane Austen book I have read. Persuasion does feel more mature than her other novels - I vastly prefer it over Sense & Sensibility, and it's less light-hearted than Emma and Northanger Abbey. I like Anne, and seeing her finally reunited with her true love is touching. Though I appreciate the writing of Persuasion more than that of some of Austen's earlier novels, I felt like I could connect less well with Anne than some of her other heroines.

[lizarodz]

An old favorite

[mrs_mander_reads]

This is my favorite Austen novel. I like the story about Ann and Wentworth because it's about hope, and loving someone when we least deserve it.

[Eve1972]

Not as good as some of her others, but still a cracking read!!