Persuasion (Oxford World's Classics)
by Jane Austen
List Price:
Our Price: $0.98
You Save: $4.97 (84%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Jane AustenEditor: James Kinsley
Introduction: Deidre Shauna Lynch
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-03-18
ISBN: 0192802631
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Book Reviews of Persuasion (Oxford World's Classics)
Book Review: The Best Austen, and Perhaps Simply the Best Novel
Summary: 5 Stars
One of the major sources of contention and strife in my marriage is the disagreement between my wife and me over what is the best Jane Austen novel (yes, we are both more than a bit geekish in our love of words and literature--our second biggest ongoing quarrel is about the merits of the serial comma).
For my money, there are three of Austen's six finished novels that one can make a good argument for being her "best":
"Pride and Prejudice" (the popular choice, and my wife's)
"Emma" (the educated choice--most lit profs go with this one)
"Persuasion" (the truly refined choice)
Harrold Bloom in "The Western Canon" calls it perhaps a "perfect novel," and while I disagree with some of his interpretations of the characters (yes, blasphemy, I know), I wholeheartedly concur with his overal assessment.
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. There's a bittersweetness to it that you just don't get in Austen's other work.
The novel it comes closest to in terms of character and plot is probably one of her earliest novels "Sense and Sensibility." Like Eleanor in that novel, Anne is older and more mature than the typical Austen heroine. In fact, she's dangerously close to being "over the hill" at the age of 27(!). Love has passed her by, apparently.
But unlike Eleanor, who one always feels will muddle through even if she ends up disappointed in affairs of the heart, there's something more dramatically at stake with Anne. 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, she is ignored and literally overlooked by most of the other characters. 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.
This is where we see what the mature Austen can do with a character type that she couldn't when she was younger.
This edition also has the original ending of the novel included as an appendix, which gives us a rare and fascinating look in to Austen as a technical artist.
I read this novel as an undergraduate, and have reread it several times since. I even took the novel with me to Bath on a trip to England, and spent a wonderful summer evening reading it while sitting in Sidney Gardens, across the street from one of the homes Austen lived in during her time in Bath, listening to Mozart's Piano Concerto #27. It's one of my favorite memories.
More than any other of her novels, "Persuasion" shows how Austen dealt with profound existential questions within the confines of her deceptively limited setting and cast of characters. Those who think Austen is simply a highbrow precursor to contemporary romance novels or social comedies are missing the colossal depth of thought that is beneath the surface of any of her novels, this one most of all.
Austen is nearly unique in the history of the novel for the consistency of her excellence. While most novelists have a clear masterpiece that stands out among their work, and usually a fairly sizable number of works that are adequate but not enduring, all of Austen's novels stand up to repeated readings and deserve a wide audience among today's readers.
Having said that, "Persuasion" is simply the best of the best.
Summary of Persuasion (Oxford World's Classics)
Persuasion celebrates romantic constancy in an era of turbulent change. Written as the Napoleonic Wars were ending, the novel examines how a woman can at once remain faithful to her past and still move forward into the future.Anne Elliot seems to have given up on present happiness and has resigned herself to living off her memories. More than seven years earlier she complied with duty: persuaded to view the match as imprudent and improper, she broke off her engagement to a naval captain with neither fortune, ancestry, nor prospects. However, when peacetime arrives and brings the Navy home, and Anne encounters Captain Wentworth once more, she starts to believe in second chances.
Jane Austen's last completed novel features a heroine much older and wiser than her predecessors in earlier books, and presents a more intimate and sober tale of a love found long after such happiness had been deemed hopeless. This edition includes an appendix giving the original ending of Persuasion.
Anne Elliot, heroine of Austen's last novel, did something we can all relate to: Long ago, she let the love of her life get away. In this case, she had allowed herself to be persuaded by a trusted family friend that the young man she loved wasn't an adequate match, social stationwise, and that Anne could do better. The novel opens some seven years after Anne sent her beau packing, and she's still alone. But then the guy she never stopped loving comes back from the sea. As always, Austen's storytelling is so confident, you can't help but allow yourself to be taken on the enjoyable journey.
Classics Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Classics Books
Native sonby Richard Wright
Perennial Library; Published: 1987; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.75
Native Son: And How Bigger Was Bornby Richard Wright
Perennial; Published: 1993-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $60.00
Raphael and the Noble Taskby Catherine Salton
Harper; Published: 2000-10-24; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.49
Price in other shops:
Island (Perennial Classics)by Aldous Huxley
Harper Perennial Modern Classics; Published: 2002-07-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops:
A Tree Grows in Brooklynby Betty Smith
Harper; Published: 2001-11-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.82
Price in other shops:
The Great Divorce CDby C. S. Lewis
HarperAudio; Published: 2003-11-25; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $12.90
Price in other shops:
Great Expectationsby Charles Dickens
Macmillan Pub Co; Published: 1979-06; Paperback; Book
Price in other shops:
This Side of Paradiseby Fitzgerald
Scribner Paper Fiction; Published: 1988-09-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.95
Price in other shops:
Black Coffee (Poirot)by Agatha Christie
Harper Collins Pb; Published: 2002-12-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $68.32
Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1960s)by Joan Didion
Flamingo; Published: 2001-04-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $22.25
Similar Books and other products
Northanger Abbey, Lady Susan, The Watsons, Sanditon (Oxford World's Classics)by Jane Austen, Claudia L. Johnson
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2008-05-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.84
Price in other shops:
Emma (Dover Thrift Editions)by Jane Austen
Dover Publications; Dover Publications; Published: 1998-12-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.50
Price in other shops:
Lady Susan, The Watsons, Sanditon (Penguin Classics)by Jane Austen
Penguin Classics; Published: 1975-03-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.24
Price in other shops:
Pride and Prejudice (Norton Critical Editions)by Jane Austen
W. W. Norton & Company; Published: 2000-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.29
Emma (Fourth Edition) (Norton Critical Editions)by Jane Austen
W. W. Norton & Company; Published: 2011-09-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.86
Northanger Abbeyby Jane Austen
CreateSpace; Published: 2010-08-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.00
Price in other shops:
Emma (Penguin Classics)by Jane Austen
Penguin Classics; Published: 2003-05-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.42
Price in other shops:
Sense and Sensibility (Oxford World's Classics)by Jane Austen
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2008-06-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.65
Price in other shops:
Mansfield Park (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)by Jane Austen
Barnes & Noble Classics; Published: 2005-08-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.47
Price in other shops:
Pride and Prejudice (Dover Thrift Editions)by Jane Austen
Dover Publications; Dover Publications; Published: 1995-04-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.45
Price in other shops: