Persuasion - Jane Austen

"Eight years before the story proper begins, Anne Elliot is happily betrothed to a naval officer, Frederick Wentworth, but she precipitously breaks off the engagement when persuaded by her friend Lady Russell that such a match is unworthy. The breakup produces in Anne a deep and long-lasting regret. When later Wentworth returns from sea a rich and successful captain, he finds Anne's family on the brink of financial ruin and his own sister a tenant in Kellynch Hall, the Elliot estate. Will Anne and Wentworth be reunited in their love?"

Personally Persuasion is one of Jane Austen's most moving, realistic and serious of her books with a strong underlying moral message. While all of Austen's novels are generally comic, Persuasion is the most nuanced. It's been described as "autumnal" and that word suits it very well. There's a quiet bittersweetness to it that you just don't get in Austen's other work.

Anne is an older heroine, roughly 27, and so disasterously near being on the shelf, as it where. Love seems to have deserted her and her sorrow has marred her beauty. She is in great danger of ceasing to exist, not physically, but socially. When we meet her, she's barely there at all. Although a woman of strong feelings and high intelligence, she is ignored and overlooked by most of the other characters, being called "only Anne." In the universe of Austen's novels, the individual doesn't truly exist unless connected with the social world, and while Anne has a stoic strength, we understand that she is in some senses doomed if things don't change for her. 

Anne might not suit everyone as a character and I can completely understand that. She is far less spunky than other Austen heroines with no witty repartie or sharp comebacks and can strike some as being a bit of a push over. In some ways I can agree with that. She isn't the kind of character that I would normally gravitate towards. However, I think there is something to be learnt in Anne's stoic handling of the situation. She has every reason to be angery and resentful at her treatement, yet she is unfailingly kind, self controlled and endearing. 

The small cast of character inhance the importance of the social network during that period, and displays the smallness of people's worlds and connections. Everything feels isolated and Anne has no where to turn to for a differing opinion, she feels so very alone. 

Austen's intelligence, dry wit and humor are evidenced on every page. She makes observation on the human condition that stand today and will leave modern audience chuckling in recognition. The melancholy, autumnal feel of the first part of the book, when all you can see is Anne's blighted hopes and how she is disregarded and mistreated by almost everyone around her, is wrenching. Then, like springtime, comes the slow, gradual return of joy and hope to Anne's life. 

Age Rating 12+ Absolutely nothing untoward. I was having Jane Austen's books read to me since I was tiny.