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Romantic,
Insightful,
Persuasive

3 reviews

Persuasion (Dover Thrift Editions)
by Jane Austen

Published: 1997-04-24
Paperback : 192 pages
2 members reading this now
5 clubs reading this now
7 members have read this book
Recommended to book clubs by 3 of 3 members

First published in 1818, Persuasion was Jane Austen's last work. Its mellow character and autumnal tone have long made it a favorite with Austen readers. Set in Somersetshire and Bath, the novel revolves around the lives and love affair of Sir Walter Elliot, his daughters Elizabeth, Anne, ...

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Introduction

First published in 1818, Persuasion was Jane Austen's last work. Its mellow character and autumnal tone have long made it a favorite with Austen readers. Set in Somersetshire and Bath, the novel revolves around the lives and love affair of Sir Walter Elliot, his daughters Elizabeth, Anne, and Mary, and various in-laws, friends, suitors, and other characters, In Anne Elliot, the author created perhaps her sweetest, most appealing heroine.
At the center of the novel is Anne's thwarted romance with Captain Frederick Wentworth, a navy man Anne met and fell in love with when she was 19. At the time, Wentworth was deemed an unsuitable match and Anne was forced to break off the relationship. Eight years later, however, they meet again. By this time Captain Wentworth has made his fortune in the navy and is an attractive "catch." However, Anne is now uncertain about his feelings for her. But after various twists and turns of fortune, the novel ends on a happy note.
In Persuasion, as in such novels as Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, and Emma, Austen limned the plight of young women who could escape the constraints of family life only by marrying, and suggest the foolishness of women who believed they were free and not dependent on the financial and social resources of men. At the same time, Persuasion offers an ironic and subtle paean to the true love that enables one woman to rise above straitened economic circumstances and the stifling social conventions that restricted women to narrowly circumscribed lives in the common sitting room.
Sure to appeal to admirers of Jane Austen, Persuasion will delight any reader with its finely drawn characters, gentle satire, and charming re-creation of the genteel world of the 19th-century English countryside.

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Discussion Questions

Suggested by Members

Who are all of the people in this story who are eventually persuaded.
by Maruta (see profile) 12/29/16

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Member Reviews

Overall rating:
 
 
  "Persuasion"by Marti S. M. (see profile) 12/29/16

A real period piece dealing with the romance of two young people among the titled families in England. It might almost be compared to a "soap opera" of those times.

 
  "Would I like Austen as much now as I did when I 14?"by ELIZABETH V. (see profile) 07/09/16

It's been many years since I read a Jane Austen novel. Would I like her as much now as I did when I read her PRIDE AND PREJUDICE and EMMA? I was 14 then. Answer: no. Or is it fair to compar... (read more)

 
  "A more serious Jane Austen novel"by Lauren L. (see profile) 08/25/12

I love Jane Austen romance novels. The characters are full of life, the writing is beautiful, and I always leave a novel feeling complete and pretty content with how things shaped up. Compared to the others,... (read more)

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