Persuasion by Jane Austen

Twenty-seven-year old Anne Elliot is Austen's most adult heroine. Eight years before the story proper begins, she 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. All the tension of the novel revolves around one question: Will Anne and Wentworth be reunited in their love?

My Thoughts:

As a huge Jane Austen fan I dived straight into this book knowing I would absolutely love it. Although this is my second Jane Austen novel, I am absolutely enchanted with the way she writes and constructs her novels. My first Jane Austen book was, as you all know, Pride & Prejudice. To this day P&P stands as my all-time favourite novel ever. If you have read an Austen book, then you will know that there is not much action in it. The same goes for Persuasion. There is no action, instead there is a lot of drama and social activities. These alone have the potential to grab a reader's attention, because it definitely does to me. I immensely enjoy the social class of the Victorian era and learning what everyone's role is.  Jane Austen's works are like fact books, they tell us, readers about how people interacted with one another back then.


The only thing that probably disappointed me was the fact that I wanted to know more of what Captain Wentworth was thinking. Austen leaves us guessing as to his feeling towards the whole situation with him and Ann having to be in the same presence. We get to see a lot of what Anne Elliot is thinking and her emotions towards Wentworth. Although, we do get to read about Wentworth's feelings near the end of the novel, I still wanted more. 


As for characters, I loved Anne Elliot. Anne is the oldest heroine in Austen's books, and I did not mind that at all. Anne was mature and well collected. Her manners are perfect and she is anything but selfish. All these traits that Anne possess are completely different from her sisters. Mary, and Elizabeth are self absorbed and are vanity driven. I had a love/hate feeling towards Captain Wentworth. His coldness towards Anne unnerved me, even if he had a reason for it. 

I enjoyed reading Persuasion, and would recommend this to friends, families and readers everywhere! But if you have not read any Jane Austen's books before, I would suggest starting with Pride and Prejudice. Happy reading everyone!