Author: Jane Austen
Year published: 1817
Category: Adult fiction
Pages: 288 pages
Rating: 4 out of 5
Location: (my 2025 Google Reading map): UK
Summary: Persuasion is the last novel fully completed by Jane Austen. It was published at the end of 1817, six months after her death.The story concerns Anne Elliot, a young Englishwoman of 27 years, whose family is moving to lower their expenses and get out of debt, at the same time as the wars come to an end, putting sailors on shore. They rent their home to an Admiral and his wife. The wife’s brother, Navy Captain Frederick Wentworth, had been engaged to Anne in 1806, and now they meet again, both single and unattached, after no contact in more than seven years. This sets the scene for many humorous encounters as well as a second, well-considered chance at love and marriage for Anne Elliot in her second "bloom".
Review: I am not a classics reader. I really disliked them in high school and haven't looked back. That's terrible, I know. I should be more open-minded. So, when a good friend said that I should try a Jane Austen, I asked him his favorite. Persuasion (or Pride and Prejudice). So, here we are.
I like the story and the characters; I realize that I now enjoy all those BBC shows, and contemporary romances, and Jane Austen combines those two things. I watched the 1995 version of the movie once I had finished the book, and I do love the costumes, the setting, the fancy houses and countryside, the chivalry, etc.
What I have trouble with is, what seems to me, the circuitous writing. I know Austen is a wonderful writer and that she wrote in the early 1800s, but it seems to take her an awfully long time to convey something. I think I am just a much more straightforward writer/reader.
I am so glad my friend told me to read this one and I will definitely read Pride and Prejudice.
Challenges for which this counts:
- 20 Books of Summer
- Cover Love--someone wearing period clothing
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