Persuasion is Jane Austen's final novel completed in 1816, a novel dealing with lost love and second chances. Having loved Pride and Prejudice I wondered if Persuasion might be a let down. I shouldn't have worried.
Persuasion tells the story of Ann Elliot who is 27 and unmarried. Life and certainly romance seems to have passed her by. But eight years prior Ann at age 19 was engaged to Frederick Wentworth, a young man who was just starting his career in the British Navy. They were very much in love but from different classes. Ann, the daughter of Sir Walter Elliot was upper class. Her family a part of England's landed gentry. Frederick Wentworth from a lower class. Her family objected to the match and at 19 Ann didn't have the strength to go against her family. She broke off the engagement. Frederick was heartbroken and furious He left England to pursue his career in the navy. As for Ann, Austen writes:
"Time had softened down much, perhaps nearly all of peculiar attachment to him but she had been too dependent on time alone, no aid had been given in change of place (except in one visit to Bath soon after the rupture) or to any novelty or enlargement of society. No one had ever come within the Kellynch circle who could bear a comparison with Frederick Wentworth as he stood in her memory".
Fast forward to Ann's present day life and the Elliot family are in financial difficulty. Nothing dire but it will require Sir Walter Elliot to rent out Kellynch Hall for a few months to Admiral and Mrs. Croft. Sir Walter is not thrilled and he expresses his frustration with the navy as follows:
"I have two strong grounds of objection to it. First of bringing persons of obscure birth into undue distinction and raising men to honor which their fatbers and grandfathers never dreamed of, and secondly as it cuts up a man's youth and vigour horribly; a sailor grows older sooner than any other man. I have observed it all my life. A nan is in greater danger in the navy by being insulted by the rise of one whose father, his father might have disdained to speak to and of becoming permanantly an object of disgust to himself, than in any other line".
But Sir Walter agrees to rent his estate to Admiral and Mrs, Croft and Mrs. Croft it turns out is the sister of Frederick Wentworth, now Captain Wentworth, who has returned from the Napoleanic wars a rich man. Has he forgiven Ann or is he still angry? Does he still feel about her the way she still feels about him? Are second chances possible or has too much time gone by?
Jane Austen is one of tbe greatest writers in English literature, World literature and it is hard to convey in a review why she is so special. She must be read. Her novels center around marriage, a woman making the perfect match, because back in the early 1800's, a woman's entire future happiness and financial security depended on it.
Her novels also deal with class, money, family. She was popular in her day and possibly even more popular now with movies and miniseries of her novels still being produced, as well as Jane Austen literary societies, contemporary authors writing sequels to her novels etc. But nothing compares to reading Jane Austen and if you haven't read her, Persuasion at a little over 200 pages is a good place to start.
I only discovered Jane Austen about five years ago. I have just completed Northanger Abbey, which was the last major Jane Austen book for me. I agree, she is well with reading. She is one of the greats. Persuasion is truly a novel of second chances.
ReplyDeleteHi Brian, I discovered Jane Austen maybe in my late teens. The first book I read was Pride and Prejudice which I reread in my 40's. And reading it for the second time I loved it once again. I said in this review that if someone is unfamiliar with Austen Persuasion a good place to start but now I'm thinking everyone should start with Pride and Prejudice. That's the book that hooked me and I would imagine most people who read it.
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