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. In her introduction, Gillian Beer discusses Austen's portrayal of the double-edged nature of persuasion and the clash between old and new worlds. This edition also includes a new chronology and full textual notes.
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Jane Austen - need I say more? Like all of Austen’s novels, it’s more than a story simply about love - she has rooted her heroine in circumstances that stress the importance of personal integrity, discernment, and being true to one’s self. But besides that, Persuasion tells of a love that spans almost a decade, and ultimately procuring a male love interest that rivals Mr Darcy - a must read! - Sophia (QBD)
Guest, 16/11/2020
