Persuasion
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First published posthumously in December 1817, Persuasion follows Anne Elliot, a thoughtful woman of twenty-seven who has spent eight years regretting the engagement she was persuaded to break off. When her former love, Captain Frederick Wentworth, returns to her circle, now prosperous and distinguished in the Navy, Anne must confront the feelings she has long kept private. Against the backdrop of changing fortunes, naval life and the rituals of English society, Austen traces the delicate movement from estrangement towards renewed understanding.
The last novel Austen completed, Persuasion has a quieter, more autumnal atmosphere than her earlier comedies, with a depth of feeling shaped by memory, regret and the passage of time. Anne is among her most mature heroines: observant, steadfast and inwardly independent, yet constrained by the expectations placed upon women. A moving meditation on constancy and second chances, the novel is also notable for its sympathetic portrayal of the Navy and its subtle challenge to inherited rank and social authority.
From the book
“All the privilege I claim for my own sex […] is that of loving longest, when existence or when hope is gone!”
— Jane Austen, Persuasion
On Persuasion
“It deserves its position by its innovative treatment of passion and rhetorical style.”
— Janet Todd, The Cambridge Introduction to Jane Austen