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5 Comments Persuasion: (A Modern Library E-Book)
Called a ‘perfect novel’ by Harold Bloom, Persuasion was written while Jane Austen was in failing health. She died soon after its completion, and it was published in an edition with Northanger Abbey in 1818.
In the novel, Anne Elliot, the heroine Austen called ‘almost too good for me,’ has let herself be persuaded not to marry Frederick Wentworth, a fine and attractive man without means. Eight years later, Captain Wentworth returns from the Napoleonic Wars with a triumphant naval career behind him, a substantial fortune to his name, and an eagerness to wed. Austen explores the complexities of human relationships as they change over time. ‘She is a prose Shakespeare,’ Thomas Macaulay wrote of Austen in 1842. ‘She has given us a multitude of characters, all, in a certain sense, commonplace. Yet they are all as perfectly discriminated from each other as if they were the most eccentric of human beings.’
Persuasion is the last work of one of the greatest of novelists, the end of a quiet career pursued in anonymity in rural England that produced novels which continue to give pleasure to millions of readers throughout the world.
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(out of 37 reviews)
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Review by for Persuasion: (A Modern Library E-Book)
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A Cinderella story from the pen of one of England’s finest. Anne is saddled with a father whose ego is the size of a small caribbean island and two sisters whom you will certainly love to hate. Elizabeth makes her father look modest, whilst Mary possesses all the sense and sensitivity of Sir Toby Belch. The fairy godmother figure(her deceased mother’s best friend)has unfortunately made a singular error – she advised the youthful Anne against marrying a certain Captain many years ago and as a result our heroine was persuaded to let the love of her life slip through her fingers. Now perched firmly on the shelf, Anne finds herself unexpectedly swept back into company with her erstwhile lover. No longer so young & blooming herself, Anne suffers the mortification of watching him courting another girl and knowing that she has nobody but herself to blame. Enter another suitor, stage left – will Anne allow herself to be swept away by this new charmer? Will her father realise that beauty is only skin deep? Will Mary’s long-suffering husband try strangling his dreadful spouse? Will Elizabeth win herself a husband? Enjoy.
Review by Lovborg for Persuasion: (A Modern Library E-Book)
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Less well-known than “Emma”, “Pride and Prejudice” or “Sense and Sensibility”, this is an absolute gem of a novel, and my favourite of all of Jane Austen’s works. It has all the flair and comic brio of her other, more celebrated work, but a sadness and delicacy of tone that elevates it to a different level. Anne is a magnificent character, with an intelligence steeped in experience coupled with a good and true heart, and is at the centre of a novel that offers absolutely everything that you could wish for in a novel. Perfect. Absolutely perfect.
Review by for Persuasion: (A Modern Library E-Book)
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This book came into my life at a time I really needed it. Perhaps that makes me partial to it, but I found it compelling, compassionate, and greatly moving. Not a general reader of Austen, but compelled to pick it up after viewing the movie, I was impressed with it’s insight and its emotional and social commentary. But more than social commentary it is, though to some it may sound trite, a book of the heart and soul. For me it was spiritually cleansing and emotionally purifying. A book of beauty and love, a work which has become a personal favorite.
Review by Farz_B for Persuasion: (A Modern Library E-Book)
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This was the last of Austen’s novels that I read, and accordingly, one of the last that Austen herself wrote, at a time when she was ill and resigned to bed months before her death. It was published posthumously, together with Northanger Abbey, an early novel that she wrote.
Reflecting this corresponding state in herself somehow, the book carries a tone of gravity and experienced maturity that Anne Elliot, the heroine, portrays with a love that is only reconciled many years after its initial formation and breakup. At 28, she is definitely the oldest of Austen’s heroines, and thus we see a more constrained, yet delicate relationship between her and Frank Wentworth.
True to say, I enjoyed this book, as all other Austen’s novels. One can readily notice the difference in tone and character from her earlier, more popular novels so do not be disheartened if it is not the usual sprightly plot or the young, gregarious heroine.
Review by Professor Donald Mitchell for Persuasion: (A Modern Library E-Book)
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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.