Rating: 
Summary: Pride and Prejudice gets a female villain
Review: The subject of unlikely love is one we will never grow tired of, and as long as that is true, Jane Austen is an author we will always treasure. She always gives us such enthralling glimpses into live in nineteenth century England that we can little help but wish ourselves back to a time when love was courtly and appearances were everything. Somehow, she knew that love went beyond her society's rules. She knew that rank and name were not enough to silence love. In PERSUASION, she gives us all that she gave us in Pride and Prejudice. We shake our heads at the embarrassing families, yearn for the hero and heroine to admit their feelings to each other, and long for the man who causes trouble between the heroes to just go away. But, this time, not only do we have the suitor who keeps the man of our heroine's dreams at a distance, we have a malicious sister. We see Anne struggle with internal and external pressures while she deals with the seemingly outright malice of her sister, Elizabeth. Elizabeth is mean! She is not indifferent or aloof, but downright nasty and greedy. Her sister's happiness is something she would rather not see until her own is firmly in place, and she seems like the type to use sabatoge to succeed. I, for one, will never tire of reading of the ups and downs of a forbidden or unlikely love, and always feel a sense of exultation when the dashing man and striking young woman finally feel free enough to admit their feelings to one another, despite the dirty looks their pairing may draw.
Rating: 
Summary: Do not read this book.
Review: This book is by far the worst thing I have ever read. The thinking behind it is as superficial as Anne's father's. Austen has cheated the reader. She uses well too much language to repeat the same ideas over and over. There is no beauty in this book. There is no movement in this book. All she has succeeded in doing is creating the complete and total effect of boredom. Her characters are all invalids. The whole focus of the work is the making of decisions on how to move from one place to another to do boring things in an obsessive way. I would like to punch my professor in the mouth for making me read this.
Rating:
Summary: Exquisite
Review: Although the social formulas are not compatible with the present times, I was moved by the power of the emotions and the psychology of all the characters. The ending left me with a smile that lasted hours. Not because was unpredictable, but because of the beauty of the conclusion.
Rating:
Summary: Simply Beautiful. Classic Jane Austen.
Review: I've hated the fact that Persuasion isn't one of Jane Austen's most famous works ever since I read it. It is truly a beautiful love story, and it is written perfectly (as only Jane Austen could do). The story is about Anne Eliot, one of Austen's most likeable characters. Seven years before the novel begins, Anne had been persuaded out of a marriage to Frederick Wentworth. Neither Anne nor Captain Wentworth, had been persuaded out of love, though. Both have basically wasted the last seven years. Fortunately for the couple, circumstances arise which through them back together, and the two have to attempt to build a new relationship and deal with there own actions from years before. Persuasion is possibly Austen's greatest love story. It is much less satirical than here other novels. Anne is also a much more sympathetic character than say Emma. The novel is, of course, in Austen's incomparable style. Any romantic or lover of great literature would adore this beautiful novel.
Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic and Fun!
Review: I am a big fan of Jane Austen. She has so much wit and characteristics within her characters. For one, In PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, it is apparent that a thinly disguised Jane Austen is the heroine. The romantic comedy is played fondly between Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, but in this case, it is Anne Eliot and her former beau, Frederick Wentworth. Under "persuasion", she is forced to lose her regard for him because of his low connections. Seven years past and he again re-enters her life when his sister and her husband rents Kellynch Hall, since Anne's father needed the money. She avoids meeting him, but when they had no choice in their accidental visits, he meets her with cold civility. He courts the rash and young Louisa Musgrove, but an unfortunate accident changes the direction of his eyes to fall upon Anne once more. As the begin a steady friendship, the ones they are involved with fall for others, and they reflect upon what they once had and have a pleasant life together. Anne might not appear as strong as most of Jane Austen's characters, but she still has the firm beliefs of the world and would not allow things such as vanity or fortune to stand in the way of her happiness.
Rating:
Summary: Classic Austen
Review: Literary critics have characterized this book as Jane Austen's most heartfelt book. After reading it for the second time, I agree. None of Austen's other go as far to explore the inner thoughts and feelings of her heroines. Despite the fact that Anne is not as outgoing and witty as Elizabeth Bennet or as delightfully engaging as Emma, she is engaging nonetheless.
Rating:
Summary: ~Beautiful~
Review: Jane Austenites such as myself dive in most willingly and blissfully into her stories. We bask in the sway of waves bearing her lively pitch, her precise and playful interaction with the language - and we bemusedly acknowledge that such magic has never even yet come close to being rejuvenated by anyone, despite so many attempts made within the some 200 years since her novels were written. PERSUASION quaintly commences on a quiet country estate in Regency England, and on a fanciful whim journeys on through to the seaside resort of Lyme, thence onward through the social promenade of Bath. The story follows Anne Elliot, daughter of snobby baronet, Sir Walter Elliot. Anne is the middle daughter, in between older sister Elizabeth, the apple of her father's eye, and married younger sister, Mary Musgrove. Jane Austen makes very good use of her exquisite wit in the depictions of shallow, haughty Elizabeth and selfish, frivolous Mary. Anne, however, is cut from a different cloth. Having fallen in love at age 19 or 20 with a handsome young man of no fortune, Anne denies her passion for what she sees as her duty and breaks her engagement with Frederick Wentworth - after, of course, some persuasion from Lady Russell, a friend of her late mother. Then, some eight years later, after Anne has apparently lost her youthful bloom, Captain Wentworth returns - still very handsome, and now quite rich after having made his fortune in the Navy during the Napoleonic Wars. As Captain Wentworth brandishes warm, flirtatious attention upon the young, lively Musgrove sisters, Louisa and Henrietta, sisters of Mary's husband Charles, Anne silently harbours the certainty that her deep affection and love for Wentworth had never faded despite all those years apart from him, and that his aloofness bears witness that his feelings for her have forever disappeared. She all the while keeps those pangs of loss and regret subdued, and stays steadfast in her knowledge of what is right and what is good in the complex modes of interaction with others. After her father's frivolity with money has necessitated moving his family to Bath and leasing out his estate, Kellynch hall, Anne must search for her place in the world. Although PERSUASION may not be the wittiest, nor the liveliest, nor the brightest or most luminous of the six novels written by Jane Austen, one cannot deny that it is perhaps the most moving. Our heroine's allure takes the reader gently into that era of innocent romance, that beautiful country where sometimes what once had been lost might inexplicitly, almost magically, be found...if sought.
Rating:
Summary: You Must read it
Review: Don't pay attention to all those stretched-minded who say that it is Chinese torture, or something else, read it. If you're intelligent enough, you will find it very interesting and realistic. However, if you don't like it, remember that Jane Austen only wrote to herself, not to all the little minded who found it boring.
Rating:
Summary: Romantic and Realistic
Review: I love this book. It is interesting from the start to the end. All the reviewers before me have written too much about this book, so all is said. Read it!
Rating:
Summary: Wonderfully CLever!
Review: A wonderfully clever novel. This was my first Jane Austen novel,and I wasn't disappointed - although a bit surprised that it wasn't boring as I feared. This is the story of Anne who loses her chance at first love. When she has a second chance at love with the same man, we fear she will fail again, but Austen keeps the reader on the edge of the chair in suspense and (sometimes frustration). What a master at turning the phrase, of creating so vividly the class conflict, and the tension inherent in Victorian manners. A definitive exploration in the art of persuasion. Now I'll have to read some others, but I chose Persuasion as my first, because it got the best Amazon.com reviews. Sounds like a poor reason I know, but I was afraid that I might find Austen's work too far away from our own times to find compelling. I need not worry.
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