Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Persuasion by Jane Austen

About the book: At twenty-seven, Anne Elliot is no longer young and has few romantic prospects. Eight years earlier, she had been persuaded by her friend Lady Russell to break off her engagement to Frederick Wentworth, a handsome naval captain with neither fortune nor rank. What happens when they encounter each other again is movingly told in Jane Austen’s last completed novel. Set in the fashionable societies of Lyme Regis and Bath, Persuasion is a brilliant satire of vanity and pretension, but, above all, it is a love story tinged with the heartache of missed opportunities.

  • Paperback: 272 pages

  • Publisher: Penguin Classics (April 29, 2003)

  • Language: English

  • ISBN-10: 0141439688


  • First line: Sir Walter Elliot, of Kellynch Hall, in Somersetshire, was a man who, for his own amusement, never took up any book but the Baronetage; there he found occupation for an idle hour, and consolation in a distressed one; there his faculties were roused into admiration and respect, by contemplating the limited remnant of the earliest patents; there any unwelcome sensations, arising from domestic affairs changed naturally into pity and contempt as he turned over the almost endless creations of the last century; and there, if every other leaf were powerless, he could read his own history with an interest which never failed.

    My Thoughts: After reading Pride and Prejudice last year and enjoying it I thought I'd give Austen another try. I found this book at a used book store and snatched it up. I didn't enjoy it quite as much but still liked it quite a bit. This was a seemingly simple love story with a lovely ending. However it also an interesting commentary of the times as well as quite funny in places. Read it, you'll like it!

    Rating: A+

    2 comments:

    Anonymous said...

    I really liked Persuasion. I liked that they already had a history, and I really enjoyed all of the social commentary - her father and sister were just kind of ridiculous, lol. Glad you liked it!

    Anonymous said...

    I really liked Persuasion. I liked that they already had a history, and I really enjoyed all of the social commentary - her father and sister were just kind of ridiculous, lol. Glad you liked it!