Persuasion

Rating:
Summary: the most profound book by Jane Austen
Review: I feel this is Austen's most serious and heart-felt novel. It's even painful at times.

Rating:
Summary: Well thought out and overflowing with feeling and meaning.
Review: Persuasion is Jane Austen at her best. The novel is most brilliantly thought out and beautifully presented. With romance at the forefront Austen nevertheless apprehends the task of presenting valuable life lessons. She achieves the intensity of the most gripping works, the light-heartedness of the most comical, and the wonder of the fantastic. This novel challenges whatever good lies dormant and inspires what's honorable in you. It also warms the heart.

Rating:
Summary: Most mature work
Review: I found Persuasion to be the most mature of all Austen's works. The story of Anne Elliot's simple yet poignantly lost love (and final redemption)is heartfelt. The language, I think, is sophisticated and not pretentious. However, I think that most interesting aspect of this is that fact that when I read this book 20 years later, I will be able to feel its profoundity on yet another level.

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Summary: Persuasion: Austen at Her Best
Review: Persuasion is Austen's version of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Ugly Duckling." How does Anne Elliot deal with her "faded bloom?" Throughout the novel, Austen depicts a most sympathetic character, Anne Elliot, that a woman of the 1990's can readily identify with. Anne Elliot is pulled in each and every direction as she tries to fit in and find her own self. This is not just another one of Austen's cliched marriage plots. It is a book about learning to cope and evaluating one's culture.

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Summary: The virtue of Jane Austen
Review: Anne Elliot, the heroine of "Persuasion", is surely more of Jane Austen than any of her other heroines. This was her last book and it was here that she drew together all the virtues she saw in an ideal woman. Anne is no longer young, has lost the full bloom of youthful beauty, and has been disappointed in love because she heeded the wishes of others, and not of her heart and her mind. The few images we have of Jane Austen we have show her to be a plain woman, and we know by reading any of her books of her fierce intelligence, biting wit and brilliant powers of observation of human behaviour. Anne is certainly more idealised than the voice of the narration (Austen herself), but she seems to be a manifestation of what she thought she was, or at least, how she would like to be - intelligent, kind, sensitive to other's feelings, and most importantly, someone who is valued for these qualities rather than for beauty and money. The tension of "Persuasion" is based around the question: "Is Captain Wentworth, the ideal Austen male - strong, determined yet intelligent and prepared to accept a worthy female as an intellectual equal - in love with Anne"? Persuasion is a good read - it's not as cheeky as "Emma", or as involved as "Pride and Prejudice", but there are plenty of the great Austen ironic (or even sarcastic) flourishes. And the intelligence of her writing is a delight.

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: 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.

Rating:
Summary: A Delicately Wrought Autumnal Minuet
Review: Like all of her novels, Jane Austen's PERSUASION is essentially a comedy of manners--a work in which the characters must negotiate a complex code of conduct in order to survive, much less achieve their ends. And in a certain sense the novel is indicative of Austen's great talent, razor sharp, laced with irony and wit, and remarkably phrased. And yet PERSUASION is quite unlike Austen's other novels in the story it tells.

Eight years earlier, Anne Elliot fell in love with a man named Wentworth. Her family and friends disdained the match, arguing that the man was below her in station and lacked any fortune with which to maintain Anne in her accustomed mode of life. Persuaded to reject him against her own will, Anne broke off the engagement--and thereafter found herself unable to love another even as she endured the follies of her father and two sisters. But Wentworth has returned, having made his name and fortune with the British navy, and it is now his turn to reject her.

Published in 1816, PERSUASION is the last novel Austen completed before her death a year later, and it is remarkable for a very autumnal tone. Unlike such Austen masterpieces as PRIDE AND PREJUDICE and EMMA, the herione is not a spirited, quickwitted young women on the verge of matrimony; the hero is not a dashing gentlemen of great estate; there is no verbal duel between the sexes. It is instead the story of a commonsense and pleasantly ordinary woman who considers herself past the likelihood of marriage--and who now wishes only to escape the emotional pain and humiliation visited upon her by a suitor from long ago.

While PERSUASION does not really stand along Austen's greatest works, it is nonetheless a very fine novel, a delicately wrought tale of opportunity lost and the passage of time, told in the uniquely piercing style so typical of the author--and while, of course, all eventually comes right for the romantically downtrodden Anne, it has a touch of melancholy quite unlike the tone of her other novels. Austen readers will find it a delight.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Rating:
Summary: The virtue of Jane Austen
Review: Anne Elliot, the heroine of "Persuasion", is surely more of Jane Austen than any of her other heroines. This was her last book and it was here that she drew together all the virtues she saw in an ideal woman. Anne is no longer young, has lost the full bloom of youthful beauty, and has been disappointed in love because she heeded the wishes of others, and not of her heart and her mind.The few images we have of Jane Austen we have show her to be a plain woman, and we know by reading any of her books of her fierce intelligence, biting wit and brilliant powers of observation of human behaviour. Anne is certainly more idealised than the voice of the narration (Austen herself), but she seems to be a manifestation of what she thought she was, or at least, how she would like to be - intelligent, kind, sensitive to other's feelings, and most importantly, someone who is valued for these qualities rather than for beauty and money. The tension of "Persuasion" is based around the question: "Is Captain Wentworth, the ideal Austen male - strong, determined yet intelligent and prepared to accept a worthy female as an intellectual equal - in love with Anne"? Persuasion is a good read - it's not as cheeky as "Emma", or as involved as "Pride and Prejudice", but there are plenty of the great Austen ironic (or even sarcastic) flourishes. And the intelligence of her writing is a delight.

Rating:
Summary: A Mature, Subtle, Less Constrained Austen
Review: There is no doubt how I doat upon Jane Austen's novels. Add "Persuasion" to the list. Her last finished novel, published after Austen's death, "Persuasion" is a mature novel in more senses than one. Our heroine, Anne Elliot, is in her late twenties, by far older than say, an Elizabeth Bennet ("Pride and Prejudice") or an Emma Woodhouse ("Emma"). In addition, Anne seems to have more freedom to move socially and personally than most of Austen's earlier heroines. Within the restrictive pecking order that governs Austen's ficitional world, this is saying something, since Anne is often presented as limited by family and 'connexions'. "Persuasion" is a subtle work, as Anne's actions generally take place outside of, and even in spite of, the fashionable circles her family frequents. All of this combines to form a novel of understated depth and skill.

"Persuasion" begins in 1814 - turmoil unsettles the Elliot family of Kellynch-hall - Sir Walter Elliot and his eldest daughter, Elizabeth, live beyond their means upholding family and social pride, and are feeling pressure from creditors and friends to reconstitute their lifestyle. Reluctantly renting their estate to an Admiral and Mrs. Croft, Sir Walter and his darling Elizabeth retreat to a smaller situation at the ultra-fashionable resort town of Bath. Sir Walter's middle daughter, Anne, stays behind with an honored family acquaintance, Lady Russell, intending to join the rest of the family shortly.

In retirement thus at Uppercross, Anne is shortly confronted by a change of society - including the return of two men of consequence in her past, a cousin and former heir to her father's estate, William Elliot, and Captain Frederick Wentworth, with whom she broke a long engagement eight years before. Throughout the novel, Anne finds herself forced to negotiate her way through the flippant vanity of her father and sisters, the reserved judiciousness of her adviser Lady Russell, and her unfortunate friend, Mrs. Smith, while contemplating the possibilities of reestablishing her family's estate with Mr. Elliot or rekindling her affections for Captain Wentworth.

Having recently read "The Romance of the New World" by Joan Pong Linton, I found myself drawn in "Persuasion" to the overarching theme of middle class industry and social advancement versus the supposed inherent virtues of landed nobility. With the exception of William Elliot, who only anticipates an inheritance, none of the novel's various suitors, Wentworth, Captain Benwick, Charles Hayter, etc., are directly linked to landed money. Especially in the cases of Wentworth and Benwick, service in the Royal Navy is most often and most convincingly presented as an avenue for monetary, and increasingly, social advancement. A brief scene in which the Dowager Viscountess Dalrymple notices Captain Wentworth in a crowd is enough to show us the virtues and attractiveness of a self-made man in Austen's largely aristocratic (if minor aristocracy) fictional universe.

There is in "Persuasion," as in most of Austen, a good deal of time afforded to character development, especially in the context of what I like to call background-checks. In "Persuasion" however, moreso than usual, Anne Elliot is largely left to herself to decide how to proceed in her own most sensitive matters. That she operates outside of her family's regard, and that of her own trusted friend Lady Russell, makes her unique, strong, and more assertive and self-sufficient than many Austen heroines. "Persuasion" is an excellent, intimate novel, with many exquisitely crafted moments of pain, pleasure, and humor. It is one I cannot wait to read again.