Persuasion (Penguin Classics) by Jane Austen
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Book Reviews of Persuasion (Penguin Classics)
Book Review: Love's Barriers Delightfully Probed in Polite Conversation
Summary: 5 Stars
Persuasion is Jane Austen's most sophisticated story and writing. She lovingly and incisively demonstrates the problems of being a well-bred sensitive person in a society that's more intrigued by social standing, money, and polite conversation than by good character.
Persuasion is Anne Elliot's story. The title's initial allusion is to Anne's brush with matrimony when a promising, but not rich, naval officer, Captain Wentworth, proposed and she fell in love with him at 19. But Anne's deceased mother's friend, Lady Russell, persuaded Anne not to make the match. Up until the time of the story, Anne hasn't had another suitor and she's now well past the usual age of marriage at 29 and "her bloom had vanish early." Her father's spendthrift ways mean that Anne could bring little money to a marriage so she's expecting not to marry.
While in her social class that lack of a husband is a drawback, in reality her family is a greater problem. Her father, Sir Walter Elliot, is a baronet who spends too much money, is obsessed by social rank, loves to be around the "beautiful people" and admire himself in a mirror, and keeps company with an unsuitable, scheming widow, Mrs. Clay, who is looking for a husband and has latched onto Elizabeth as friend. Anne's older sister, Elizabeth, is also unmarried and is as equally obsessed with social status as their father. Both Sir Walter and Elizabeth fail to value Anne and looked to her to suit their conveniences. The other daughter, Mary, is married but the connection doesn't thrill either Sir Walter or Elizabeth. Mary sees Anne as a virtual servant who should wait on her every beck and call when Anne is her guest.
Due to Sir Walter's over spending of his income, it is decided he will rent the family estate, Kellynch Hall, while he, Elizabeth, and Anne take up less expensive quarters and a reduced social life in Bath. This change sets lots of new events into motion, not the least of which is Anne being re-introduced to Captain Wentworth who now has a fortune and seems to be looking for a lively, young wife. Only their common commitment to being polite makes time in one another's company tolerable. What strong emotions burn under the surface? She's very embarrassed, but Captain Wentworth is hard to read.
In the course of the book, you'll find out a lot about social climbing in Regency England, the finances of the social elites and those who were up-and-coming, how marriage agreements were struck, and how the naval officers differed from the gentry. You'll also be impressed, I'm sure, by the patina of politeness that served as a social lubricant among people who often didn't care a trifle for one another.
In such a society, people mostly wore masks of being thoughtful, considerate people while in reality they were seldom thinking about very much and didn't care much for others. Anne Elliot is the exception in that her heart and mind are actually devoted to the service of others.
One of the most interesting parts of the story is how it was possible (mostly by accident) to sort out the phonies from among those with glittering manners.
Anne Elliot is one of the most memorable and admirable characters in English literature. Do read this book and find out about the other kinds of persuasion that took place during this year of her fictional life. You'll be delighted that you did.
Book Review: Her Last Finished Effort...
Summary: 5 Stars
When Jane Austen finished "Persuasion" in 1816, she was already suffering from the effects of the disease that would kill her the following year. "Persuasion" is rather shorter than its precessors such as "Sense and Sensibility" and "Pride and Prejudice". It is however the polished work of a mature author, and easily holds its own with her other finished novels.
As the story opens, Sir Walter Elliot, a vain and foppish baronet facing bankruptcy, is persuaded to rent his home and move his family to Bath in order to economize on expenses. The middle daughter, Anne, unmarried and ignored by her family, is shocked to learn that the prospective renters are an Admiral Croft and his wife, whose brother is one Frederick Wentworth. Eight years earlier, Wentworth, then a young naval officer lacking wealth and status, had wooed Anne, who was persuaded by her mentor, Lady Russell, to reject his suit on the grounds of his lack of prospects. The kind-hearted but much put-upon Anne is left behind by her family to close up the house and to take care of her hypochondriac married younger sister Mary, who lives nearby.
While visiting with Mary and her husband Charles Musgrave, Anne encounters the now Captain Wentworth, wealthy with prize money and looking for a potential wife among Charles' two sisters. Wentworth is distant and correct with Anne. When Wentworth proposes a visit to the seaside village of Lyme Regis, Anne is included in the group. While there, Wentworth appears to settle on Louisa Musgrave, only to have Louisa be seriously injured in an accident. The practical Anne takes charge in the crisis, causing Wentworth to take renewed notice of her.
Anne ends up in Bath, where her family pursues a meaningless round of social calls. A handsome and long-missing cousin materializes to reconcile with the Elliots and to pay court to Anne. The long-suffering Anne must balance his suspicious attentions with the unclear intentions of Wentworth, who follows Anne to Bath.
Anne still loves Wentworth, but hardly dares to hope that he will pass up younger and more attractive women to renew his relationship with her. The inarticulate Wentworth finally finds his voice in a note to Anne, giving her another chance to make the right choice.
In this final novel, Anne wrestles with a dilemma common to Austen heroines, whether to marry for love or money and security. The younger Anne was persuaded not to marry for love because Wentworth lacked the money and prospects to give her the security of her station in life. In revisiting that choice, Anne concludes that the advice was correct under the circumstances but proven wrong by subsequent events. Anne believes in marrying for love; the further implication of her internal argument is that she and Wentworth should have waited for each other while he acquired the financial security necessary for their successful life together.
"Persuasion" is a well-written and moving story, filled with the usual well-developed characters and often biting social commentary of a Jane Austen novel. It is very highly recommended to her fans and to those readers looking for an excellent period romance.
Book Review: Vintage Austen But Not Her Best
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of Jane Austen's five novels as a mature author. As with four of the other five, it follows the same formula of a financially disadvantaged young woman who meets and marries a wealthier man. The exception is her novel "Emma" where the protagonist has her owns means. There are no axe murders in an Austen novel or any nasty elements. Her stories take place in small English towns and they all have a variety of characters including a few willful women and usually one male rogue.
As background information, I have read all of Austen's novels, and I have read various analyses of Austen's work.
"Pride and Prejudice" is Jane Austen's finest novel. That book is the perfect balance of story, prose, structure, and interesting characters. It evokes many emotional responses in the reader. That novel is among the greatest novels of all time on par with for example Flaubert's "Madame Bovary" or Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina." From a strictly literary point of view, "Mansfield Park" is the most complicated and sophisticated literary work penned by Austen.
So, where does that leave "Persuasion" among her novels? The present novel is good and it is generally thought of as one of her five best. It is one of her mature novels - as opposed to Northanger Abbey, an early work. It has a good story and good characters. I liked her treatment of Captain Wentworth. The description and the story about the primary character, Anne Elliot, is vintage Austen writing and story telling. But overall it does not quite reach the heights of those other two great Austen novels. Still, I rate it somewhere between 4 and 5 stars. It is more a question of whether you like the story or not, since it follows the Austen formula. All of her five mature novels share a certain fixed writing style and a common structure, or the Austen formula as mentioned above. She uses the early pages to introduce the families, and other characters, and give start the story. She moves characters around from place to place in part for time shifting. She does a wrap up in the last few chapters.
Those opening chapters are an obstacle for most readers. She uses her own vocabulary and has an unusual way of structuring her prose. That structure is a trademark of Austen's writing. Also, she manages to work in a lot of drama and social issues with some humor and irony.
Austen wrote the novel based on contemporay life in England from approximately 1814 to 1815, in the post Napolean period, and it was published in 1816 after her other works. Overall I would rate it as excellent but not her best. It is similar to "Sense and Sensibility"and much better than her early novel "Northanger Abbey" in terms of literary sophistication and the characters, and it ranks behind the two novels mentioned above and "Emma." Those three (Emma, Pride and Prejudice, and Mansfield Park) are her finest works.
Most Austen fans will love the book, and I would recommend the novel.
Book Review: Follow your heart (while you're still pretty)
Summary: 5 Stars
Jane Austen's last novel, posthumously published in 1818, is about the possibility of having a second chance for love after one's made the mistake of following advice contrary to natural inclinations. The story centers on Anne Elliot, descendant of an illustrious family from the nobility of Somerset. Her mother has died and she lives with her father, an insufferably vain and irresponsible character, who has spent most of his fortune in a stupid way. Anne also lives with her elder sister Elizabeth, another unlikable person. They treat Anne with contempt and humiliation. The youngest sister, Mary has been married to a good man with a good social position. Turns out that the Elliot's have run out of money and they must move to a more humble house in order to lease the manor. The new tenant is an Admiral Croft, married to the sister of Captain Frederick Wentworth, a former boyfriend of Anne. Eight years ago, this man had proposed marriage to Anne, but he had been rejected after Anne's family, and in particular a fomer best friend of her mother's, had convinced her that she could find a much better prospect (Wentworth was by that time a beginner in the Navy and didn't have money). Anne has suffered ever since, because she really loved him and the much better prospect seems never to appear. Wentworth himself was deeply hurt by the rejection, but now he has come back from the war rich and with a promising future. The Elliots, the Crofts, and the Musgroves (Mary's husband's family) develop a good social relationship and Captain Wentworth is frequently invited to parties and reunions.
The rest of the novel is centered on Anne's feelings and her ambivalent emotions: on the one hand, she tries to be as little as possible in the company of Wentworth, but on the other she is very anxious about finding out if he still feels something for her. But Wentworth is cold and silent with her, showing respect but also letting her know how offended he feels. Mary's sister in law, Louisa Musgrove, falls for the handsome captain, and it seems like they will get married. That is, until she has an accident in the resort of Lyme, which changes the course of action.
With a conventional and almost predictable plot, Austen manages nonetheless to write an acute psychological portrait, and a wonderful story. Her prose is terse and fluid, with a subdued sense of humor. Anne is a credible and likable character, always a good friend even if her relatives despise and ill-treat her and her beauty has started to fade. She is fully conscious of what a terrible mistake she made when she rejected a good, hardworking man who loved and respected her, and who is now an attractive option for many young women. Sexual tension is ever present in this world of repression and hipocrisy, and the self-affirming and independent Anne stands above the rest of the characters, as a prefiguration of the modern, self-reliant woman. One of the best by Jane Austen.
Book Review: Quintessential Austen
Summary: 5 Stars
Certainly one of the greatest literary minds of all time is that of Jane Austen, an author who has been much-maligned by her unfair modern association with "chick-lit" (it's nice that "Bridget Jones' Diary" was based on "Pride and Prejudice," but that should not reflect unduly on Austen's work). The trick is that while Austen's novels do tend to center on a romantic plot they are imbued with many other facets that make them so much more than trifling entertainments. Sharp social commentary is particularly prevalent in all of her novels, perhaps none more-so than her final work, "Persuasion" -- with its deft handling of a woman's place in society and of the difficulties imposed by class barriers. Its focus is on Anne Elliot, middle child of the pretentious Sir Walter, who has no use for her in his life -- choosing to favor his eldest daughter Elizabeth (who, truly, takes after her father in all selfish respects) and to offer regard to his youngest, Mary, at least as a woman who has fulfilled her purpose by marrying satisfactorily. Years earlier Lady Russell, a family friend who became a sort of surrogate parent to Anne after her mother's death, persuaded Anne to break her engagement to her beloved Frederick Wentworth, believing him to be an inferior sort of person who would only make Anne miserable in time. Now, eight years later, Wentworth is a successful captain in the British navy who has proven that he would have been a more than worthy match for Anne in situation as well as affection. But when he comes back into her life, Anne must live with the consequences of her earlier decision as Wentworth appears to have moved on -- actively seeking a wife right under Anne's nose. Anne also finds herself being courted by her cousin William, who would be a perfectly sensible match for her, but since her heart still belongs to Captain Wentworth she cannot bear to consider it. The plot conventions will be familiar to fans of Austen, but that does not detract from the sharpness and enjoyability of the tale in the slightest. The keen observations are on target, and "Persuasion" has the added benefit of having some of the best characters in the Austen canon this side of "Pride and Prejudice". Anne proves to be a heroine worthy of Elizabeth Bennet's approval, and Captain Wentworth an amiable counterpoint to the steelier Mr. Darcy. Mary's histrionics are reminiscent of the wailings of Mrs. Bennet, providing blissful comic relief without becoming too overbearing. Best of all, naturally, is the omnipresent Austen wit -- an incomparable achievement in all of her novels, on fine display here in "Persuasion". Anyone who has not yet experienced Jane Austen is missing out on some enjoyable and delightfully thought-provoking reading, and should get started as soon as possible.