Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2421 in Books
• Published on: 2004-02-16
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

Synopsis
At twenty-seven, Anne Elliot is no longer young and has few romantic prospects. Eight years earlier, she had been persuaded by her friend Lady Russell to break off her engagement to Frederick Wentworth, a handsome naval captain with neither fortune nor rank. What happens when they encounter each other again is movingly told in Jane Austen's last completed novel. Set in the fashionable societies of Lyme Regis and Bath, Persuasion is a brilliant satire of vanity and pretension, but, above all, it is a love story tinged with the heartache of missed opportunities.

Customer Reviews

It's Jane Austen - You Get What You Expect
Theres always something so satistfying about finishing a Jane Austen novel. Whether it be due to the characteristically happy endings, the light - hearted manner with which Austen always rounds off her story, or the fact the girl ALWAYS gets the handsome, rich, intelligent guy she's fallen in love with, you cannot help but put the book down with a small smile and a sigh of relief, proud to have had the endurance to have reached the end, all previous complaints about how long and boring the novel is forgotten, you may even find yourself sporting the notion of picking the novel up and starting again immeiateley.

If one thing is to be said about Jane Austen, it must be that she probably understood human beings better than anyone else who has ever walked the earth. Human emotion, intention, motive, desire, pain, sadness and happiness - people's behaviour in every day society, the nature of self- reflection, Auten sees all this around her and mimicis it to perfection in her novels. Her characters, written almost 200 years ago in a society very different from our own (supposedly) are often far more identifiable and relateable to us now than those from novels written but 10 years ago. Excepting the caricatures, Austen's characters are 'real' - you will learn to understand the character of Anne Elliot better than people you may have known for years, and you will also learn to see your own feeling and motives in a different light, and notice that you and Anne are not as different as you may initially seem.

Persuaion follows the same formula as all Austen novels (one of the biggest weakneses of her writing I believe - for the reader always knows what will happen at the end). Girl meets boy, girl cannot be with boy for some particular reason, girl is tempted by another boy who turns out to have bad intentions, girl finally marries the first boy. Reading the blurb at the back of the novel will provide potential readers with the names and details required to fill in the blanks, so I will not write more here, though I will say that this is not my favourite Austen novel. I have studied both Pride and Prejudice and Emma recently and believe the latter to be a better constructed novel (it has often been described as her most perfect novel) though my preference towards it may be due to my being so familiar with the story and techniques used in that novel.

One of the key issues with Austen is that, a lot of the time her novels are just not very entertaining. The amount of internal action far outweighs the external action of the novels, and often the parts of the story that the reader is most interested in seems to be what Austen is most reluctant to give us - ie contact time between Anne Ellliot and Captain Wentworth. However, for the reader who is willing to invest time and energy into the novel, you will find that almost every sentence is worth reading - Austen doesn't write purely to fill up space, each lines holds some form of insight or insult into society and people - you just have to be willing to read between the lines to spot it.

I've written far too many essays on Jane Austen novels over the years to bare the thought of writing another so I'll cut my review short here - theres nothing like finding out and forming opions on a novel like reading it yourself, which I would advise anyone who is a fan of Austen literature to do with this novel. Her books are not for everybody, and dont be fooled into thinking them simple love stories as they are often portrayed as on tv/film adaptations. It's been said that the best writers write about what they know, and Austen is no exception - so is it any surprise her novels aren't filled with pretty parks, unconditional love and perfect families? Austen lived in her real world, and she sure as hell wasn't afraid to write about it.

Love's Barriers Delightfully Probed in Polite Conversation
Persuasion is Jane Austen's most sophisticated story and writing. She lovingly and incisively demonstrates the problems of being a well-bred sensitive person in a society that's more intrigued by social standing, money, and polite conversation than by good character.

Persuasion is Anne Elliot's story. The title's initial allusion is to Anne's brush with matrimony when a promising, but not rich, naval officer, Captain Wentworth, proposed and she fell in love with him at 19. But Anne's deceased mother's friend, Lady Russell, persuaded Anne not to make the match. Up until the time of the story, Anne hasn't had another suitor and she's now well past the usual age of marriage at 29 and "her bloom had vanish early." Her father's spendthrift ways mean that Anne could bring little money to a marriage so she's expecting not to marry.

While in her social class that lack of a husband is a drawback, in reality her family is a greater problem. Her father, Sir Walter Elliot, is a baronet who spends too much money, is obsessed by social rank, loves to be around the "beautiful people" and admire himself in a mirror, and keeps company with an unsuitable, scheming widow, Mrs. Clay, who is looking for a husband and has latched onto Elizabeth as friend. Anne's older sister, Elizabeth, is also unmarried and is as equally obsessed with social status as their father. Both Sir Walter and Elizabeth fail to value Anne and looked to her to suit their conveniences. The other daughter, Mary, is married but the connection doesn't thrill either Sir Walter or Elizabeth. Mary sees Anne as a virtual servant who should wait on her every beck and call when Anne is her guest.

Due to Sir Walter's over spending of his income, it is decided he will rent the family estate, Kellynch Hall, while he, Elizabeth, and Anne take up less expensive quarters and a reduced social life in Bath. This change sets lots of new events into motion, not the least of which is Anne being re-introduced to Captain Wentworth who now has a fortune and seems to be looking for a lively, young wife. Only their common commitment to being polite makes time in one another's company tolerable. What strong emotions burn under the surface? She's very embarrassed, but Captain Wentworth is hard to read.

In the course of the book, you'll find out a lot about social climbing in Regency England, the finances of the social elites and those who were up-and-coming, how marriage agreements were struck, and how the naval officers differed from the gentry. You'll also be impressed, I'm sure, by the patina of politeness that served as a social lubricant among people who often didn't care a trifle for one another.

In such a society, people mostly wore masks of being thoughtful, considerate people while in reality they were seldom thinking about very much and didn't care much for others. Anne Elliot is the exception in that her heart and mind are actually devoted to the service of others.

One of the most interesting parts of the story is how it was possible (mostly by accident) to sort out the phonies from among those with glittering manners.

Anne Elliot is one of the most memorable and admirable characters in English literature. Do read this book and find out about the other kinds of persuasion that took place during this year of her fictional life. You'll be delighted that you did.

So very annoying....but undeniably wonderful
Anne Elliot is without a doubt one of Jane Austen's most irritating heroines; indeed if one was to use a colour to describe her character it would be that horrible shade of beige that one sees on old Saabs. Unfortunately, though, much as I want to dislike this novel, centred around Anne, I really can't. Persuasion, written when Austen was in failing health, is possibly second only to Mansfield Park as her greatest novel, and it is precisely because of Anne flaws that it is such a wonderful book. Gone are the simplistic epitomes of high society. Gone are the heroines of old with perfect looks and perfect temperament. Anne is a sufferer of 'the-one-that-got-away syndrome' and right up til the end of the novel, the narrative, featuring a lot more free indirect speech than usual, is tinged with a sense of resignation and regret. For those that don't know, Persuasion is the story of Anne Elliot, a woman now of 27 who fell in love with a young naval officer - Frederic Wentworth - eight years ago but never married because of the impending Napoleonic Wars and her family's disapproval of his low station. Now Wentworth has returned, an established Commander (but still hurting from the snub of nearly a decade ago) and the Elliot family's fortunes are growing thin. Anne has to stand by as Wentworth courts her younger, free spirited neighbour Louisa Musgrove; and, after the Elliots' move to Bath for financial reasons, a courtship of her own by the charming yet suspect William Elliot.

Persuasion is, like all Austen novels, wonderfully easy to read, and it has more than most to take from it. It is a wonderful bok to study as well, marking the parallels between Austen's life and Anne's, the historical significance of the Navy in Austen's time and their increased social standing because of the war, the subplotting is effortless, and for Westcountry lovers Bath is portrayed beautifully as one would expect. But most pleasing is the story - it isn't a one of perfection, it doesn't have every single end tied neatly, and there is still the sense of there being a certain way to go at the end of the novel. It is a very personal novel full that really blurs the lines between author and character, full of flaws and tinged with palpable nostalgia. That is why it is great.