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, this novel is my favorite because it's real. I think most women can relate to the emptiness left behind after leaving a "love of your life." I think many women (and men for that matter) can relate to the painful awkwardness of seeing that person again. This story has more meaning and insight than many other Jane Austen novels I've read. I actually felt like I took away some wisdom from it.

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 compare those novels to PERSUASION, which was published after Austen died?

I don't remember needing to reread many paragraphs in order to understand them when I read PRIDE AND PREJUDICE and EMMA. But that is exactly why it took me a week to read PERSUASION, which is short and should have been a quick read.

Another problem with PERSUASION was probably also the same in PRIDE AND PREJUDICE and EMMA. That is, the whole story is about nothing but romance. When I was younger, that appealed to me. Now I want more.

Maybe Austen intended to do some rewrites on PERSUASION before she published it. We'll never know.

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.