Rating: 
Summary: I'm persuaded!
Review: Having read all of Jane Austen's books, I've been very impressed with her style. Reading Persuasion, I immediately noticed the difference between shy Anne Elliot and Jane Austen's other characters: Emma, Elinor and Marianne, Elizabeth Bennet, Fannie Price, and Catherine Morland. Anne is not the most beautiful, the cleverest, or the most-spirited. She is shy, quiet, thoughtful, somewhat plain, and honest. She reacts to emergency situations calmly and clearly, proving that she does have a backbone. I think the fact that she is older and more mature than Austen's other characters shows a maturity in Austen's writing. I highly recommend this book to those who love Jane Austen and can understand being shy and strong.
Rating: 
Summary: Not as good as Pride and Prejudice, but still good
Review: As a big fan of Austen's, I read this book and wasn't disappointed. All of Austen's trademarks are there: her witty commmentary of the British elite, silly men and women who both exasperate and amuse you, and a good love story. Persuasion is about Anne Elliot, who after breaking off an earlier engagement with Captain Wentworth, is suddenly in his company 8 years later, and longing to rekindle the romance. This book wasn't as fun as Pride and Prejudice, mainly because the struggle between Anne and Wentworth doesn't resonate the same way as that between Elizabeth and Darcy. Neither characters are particularly arrogant (though Wentworth is hostile at being rejected before), but it's still interesting to see how the two will find one another among the silliness of the people and situations around them. Jane Austen just has a way of keeping her reader in suspense, no matter if you feel sure you know the ending. The question is always How will they get together rather than if, and the How here will please any romantic reader satisfactorily.
Rating:
Summary: Love Jane Austen!!!
Review: This is my favorite Jane Austen's book (and Pride and Predjudice). Is so beautiful, and charming, and I love the characters,the way of writing and everything. If someone say to you that its boring, forgive him/her: it's because he/she's not a good reader.
Rating:
Summary: Wherefore art thou, Captain Wentworth......
Review: This story is heart-wrenchingly agonising. This is a good thing! Never have I been so moved by a love story. When Anne and Captain Wentworth finally overcome their own guardedness and the pressures of society and re-declare their love for each other...... It is the most wonderful scene ever written. I have never read a more wonderful love story. I think this to be the most romantic of Jane Austen's novels. The mercenary marriage market Jane Austen ridicules in "Pride and Prejudice" is portrayed in a darker and more destructive light in "Persuasion". Two lovers torn apart by a society fixated on class, wealth and position, only able to find happiness together once this obstacle has been overcome, but in the mean time..... OH THE HEART ACHE!!!!! I recommend this one for a rainy day when one can lie in bed, or sit in the favourite arm-chair, and wallow in the brilliance of this timeless and heart stirring romance. Don't forget your tissues!
Rating:
Summary: My Favorite Book of All Time....
Review: Over the years, I have read "Persuasion" by Jane Austen at LEAST 10 times. Simply put, it is my favorite book. While not everyone holds this novel with the same high esteem that I do, I urge those who have NOT read "Persuasion" to buy it.This book has meant different things to me at different times in my life. I have often reflected why I find the story so fascinating and believe it is because it so accurately portrays the human spirit and exposes our flaws and strengths with such transparency. Jane Austen reveals those who are so superficial that they see no goodness or worth other than beauty and wealth (Anne's father and sister); those who are so dependent that they do not listen to their own heart - but instead leave their most important decisions for others to make (Anne herself); and those whose pride has been wounded. And perhaps what is so captivating, Austen lets the reader vicariously "undo" an error in judgment. This is an excellent and timeless novel.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Austen's best
Review: I am a fan of Jane Austen's work, but this is definitely not her best novel. It was written later in her life and lacks the emotion and plot that are so captivating in her earlier works. Read 'Pride and Prejudice' instead.
Rating: 
Summary: Brilliance Audio edition a disappointment
Review: I'm a longtime Persuasion fan, and know the novel well. I bought the Brilliance Audio edition because it's tough to find unabridged versions and I like hearing my favorite old stories aloud. The tapes are certainly sturdy for repeated library lendings, and the narrator is easy to hear and understand, but otherwise Michael Page is the wrong reader for this story! His vocal characterizations are quavery and pinched, and don't usually fit the characters--or degrade them to farce level. The music signalling the end of each cassette is distracting, jarring even. Not a great reading of Persuasion. Not even a good intro to the novel for first timers, and terrible for those of us who know the characters already.
Rating:
Summary: An enchanting and entertaining read
Review: Jane Austen's "Persuasion" accomplishes the feat of rewarding both extremely casual and deeper, more analytical readings. It certainly contains enough genuine insight into humanity, and social relationships in particular, to be considered a "serious" novel. But "Persuasion" defies the stereotype that accompanies this genre. Rather than being ponderous and solemn, it is instead a work of sheer joy to read. Readers are treated to a complex novel that reads like a summer beach book. Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of "Persuasion" is how it balances the depth and richness with pure entertainment. Anne, her sisters, her father, and of course Captain Wentworth, are all very complex and fully fleshed-out characters. At the same time, however, they are all delightful people to read about. Anne in particular is charming and compassionate. Austen's prose is wonderful; witty, intelligent, and clear. And the story itself, a tale of people in love, is universal in its appeal and yet never once becomes formulaic. The novel, then, is a fantastic success in every possible way. It provides the richness of great literature with the charm of the greatest writers. I can't recommend "Persuasion" highly enough.
Rating:
Summary: "TREASURES OF THE HEART"
Review: Published a few years after the acclaimed PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, this novel paints an intimate portrait of country gentry in
early 19th century England. Describing the social milieus with which she was so familiar, Austen alternates the plot development between modest estates and the seaside resorts of Lyme and Bath. Travel aand communication proved serious obstacles, so letters and notes were the more prized and preserved. Austen weaves a tapestry of strict social customs,
explaining the value of keeping up appearances, of keeping one's place--which was clearly deliniated by time-honored class snobbery and ritual. Other themes which are quietly included:
be wary of schemers, evaluate the counsel of interfering extended famly, and do not trust superficial impressions.
Narrated in the usual third person, ths intense story revolves around Anne Elliot, the middle daughter of vain but impoverished Sir Walter. The author might well have chosen to make this a first person novel, since we always know what the modest
protagonist is doing, feeling and thinking. Austen gently ridicules the struggle between vanity and financial reality, as the family's streightened circumstances obliged them to rent out their beloved Kellynch Hall and take rooms in Bath. But where to find suitable tenants for the ancestral home? Their circle includes the neighboring Musgroves, whose son married the youngest Elliot daughter. Fortunately for the marriageable
girls, their limited horizons are expandaded by the arrival of three young naval captains--one of whom Anne was forced to renounce 7 years before. She represents the first victim of
of the art of familial persuasion. Yet her heart still beats fast at the mention of his name...
Austen presents many themes and events which also appear in her signature novel; she deftly reveals a woman's intimate understanding of her heroine's private torment. The social ritual between country gentry is almost ridiculous in their extreme scruples regarding proper behavior--even to their own relatives and in-laws. Austen exposes the time-honored web of duty an public behavior, even on vacation. One wonders if the women of Austen's day were taught--direclty or indirectly--to value their own "nothingness," as Anne puts it. Is a teachable heart (one that can be persuaded to reason, even in violation of its natural instincts, to be admired in that society? Or in our own time? Were Austen's women true Victorian ladies or more rational creatures than
male authors of the time generally portrayed them? Anne pounced upon the eternal argument which provoked the denouement: which of the genders is more (or less) "inconstant." These and many other soul-searching issues are elucidated in this short novel (225 pages) which should be evaluated by the standards of a by-gone era. Thoughtful readers must discern for themselves which truths are valid for all times; if they prove universal, then the work is a true classic. An insightful novel which will appeal to most caring women.
Rating:
Summary: MAGNIFICENT
Review: Many would have Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" determine her status as one of the greatest of all novelists; however, this critic will always stand by the quiet and profound maturity that defines this lovely masterpiece "Persuasion." Here the characters are all terribly human and flawed and the narrative so touching without ever resorting to maudlin prose. There is an underlying sadness in this book which tells the reader that at some point in her life, Jane Austen loved deeply. This book is a celebration of that love; indeed, she would not have felt comfortable mourning it before her family or her readers. Therefore, instead of indulging in self-pity, Austen gratifies the soul by telling the story of one woman who refuses to sacrife her integrity and "secures" the man she loves in her way and in her time. This is more than a great read; it is truly a magnificent work.
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