Jane Austen’s last finished novel, Persuasion was printed in 1818, one year after her death at the age of 41.
The story follows Anne Elliot, the middle daughter of a self-satisfied popinjay Baronet, who is persuaded against marrying Frederick Wentworth for love, at the age of nineteen, by her deceased mother’s friend Lady Russell, due to his lack of connections or fortune.
Eight years later Anne is still unmarried and, having lost the bloom of youth, has had ample time to regret being so easily swayed from her choice. Then, owing to a change in circumstance to her family’s fortunes, the now Captain Wentworth reappears in her social circles, with rank and wealth on his side, owing to an illustrious naval career in the Napoleonic Wars. Whilst he looks certain to become attached to one of Anne’s companions, Anne’s cousin William Elliot – on whom the family fortune is entailed – begins to court our heroine.
Whilst the outcome of the tale is never in doubt (it is Austen after all, where happy endings are de rigueur), the circuitous paths Anne must tread and the compassion that the reader feels for her, transform what could be regarded as too simple a plot in to an engaging love story.
The character of Anne Elliott has an added degree of poignancy when one knows a little more about her author. Austen accepted a financially advantageous proposal in her mid twenties but broke it off soon after, when she realised that she could not marry without some degree of affection. This was to be the only proposal she received, and it could be implied that Anne, in receiving her second proposal at such a late age, was her vehicle for experiencing romantic attachment vicariously.
Perhaps less well-loved that other Austen novels, Persuasion is nevertheless an outstanding read, full of the author’s usual rigorous observations on the human condition and ready wit.
The story follows Anne Elliot, the middle daughter of a self-satisfied popinjay Baronet, who is persuaded against marrying Frederick Wentworth for love, at the age of nineteen, by her deceased mother’s friend Lady Russell, due to his lack of connections or fortune.
Eight years later Anne is still unmarried and, having lost the bloom of youth, has had ample time to regret being so easily swayed from her choice. Then, owing to a change in circumstance to her family’s fortunes, the now Captain Wentworth reappears in her social circles, with rank and wealth on his side, owing to an illustrious naval career in the Napoleonic Wars. Whilst he looks certain to become attached to one of Anne’s companions, Anne’s cousin William Elliot – on whom the family fortune is entailed – begins to court our heroine.
Whilst the outcome of the tale is never in doubt (it is Austen after all, where happy endings are de rigueur), the circuitous paths Anne must tread and the compassion that the reader feels for her, transform what could be regarded as too simple a plot in to an engaging love story.
The character of Anne Elliott has an added degree of poignancy when one knows a little more about her author. Austen accepted a financially advantageous proposal in her mid twenties but broke it off soon after, when she realised that she could not marry without some degree of affection. This was to be the only proposal she received, and it could be implied that Anne, in receiving her second proposal at such a late age, was her vehicle for experiencing romantic attachment vicariously.
Perhaps less well-loved that other Austen novels, Persuasion is nevertheless an outstanding read, full of the author’s usual rigorous observations on the human condition and ready wit.
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