Persuasion

Rating:
Summary: Persuasion to Love
Review: Jane Austen wrote Persuasion as her last novel. She influenced her characters to be moderate people who lived within the same town as she grew up in. This town is to be called Bath.
Anne, the main character of the novel, is the sister of Elizabeth and Mary. The family is well respected in town. They live with their father, Sir Walter Elliot, who without great thinking puts the family into dept. They then move to Bath and leave their house to Admiral and Mrs. Croft. Mrs. Croft is Captain Wentworth's sister, the man Anne had once fallen so deeply in love with. Anne goes and visits the Musgrove family where again she meets Captain Wentworth after not seeing him for so long. The Musgrove family, have two children and Captain Wentworth focuses his attention on one in particular.
They travel to see another family in which Mr. Elliot falls in love with Anne. After only knowing her for a short period of time they later find out that they are cousins. Anne forgets about Captain Wentworth for awhile and focuses her attention on Mr. Elliot. They become engaged and Anne finds out Mr. Elliot's motives. Forgiving Mr. Elliot Anne stays with him. As time goes by she hears that Captain Wentworth proclaims that his love for her has never gone away.
Jane Austen portrays the story as a love story but with a little twist and turn to it. Where family members fall in love and sides are taken. Based in the pas it has a present kind of love to it. Love triangles, family ties, and friendships that go on and off.
Persuasion needs a lot of attention. You have to focus on the little details and be interested in old literature and the time period in which the book was based and written in. There were certain things that become uncertain and unclear to understand.
The way Jane writes isn't really as typical as most books teenage children would read. She sets her stories on other books she has written and being sick while writing this book, it could have been a little better. Not to say it was a horrible book, but you really have to have the time and heart to read it.
If you are a serious reader and can really get into a book, this is a good choice. It portrays a love story that could happen in today's society but has other aspects that allows you to know that it was set back in a time period when love wasn't the one thing everyone was looking for and willing to talk about.


Rating:
Summary: My sixth and final Austen book. Delightful!
Review: I have now read all of Austen's completed works and wrote reviews for all them as well ^-^. (I'm feeling very proud of myself by now) It's not my favorite, but it's definitely not the worst. And for Jane Austen, even the worst is an enjoyable, entertaining read; I only mean the worst compared to her other novels not on a general scale.

To get down to the book, it was quite different from the others. Anne is twenty-eight at the start of the book, she is plain and unattractive having lost her `bloom' seven years earlier due to the loss of her love, and isn't as witty and sparkling as Elizabeth Bennet or Emma. Yet you don't come to despise her; she's not weak. And when you come to think of it, her agreeing to break off her engagement with the hero was a wise thing to do at her age. If he hadn't acquired a great fortune or perhaps died in service, then where would she be? Plus the fact that she was young and smothered with disapproval all around and the woman she thought of as her mother was dead against the match.

So anyway, she also has the most despicable family out of any of Austen's other novels-even Mansfield Park-they are conceited, selfish and self-important. The sad thing is that you realize that people like Sir Walter really exist, people who care solely for appearances and rank. Even Anne's sister Mary, perhaps the nicest sister, is selfish without really meaning it, and treats Anne the way a spoiled child treats it's parents; nicely when it wants something, but all the while thinking: what else do they have in their lives to do but to cater to all my whims?

There are a few trivial things I didn't like: first that Sir Walter Elliot is such a snob; Walter is my absolute favorite name! Austen gave it a pretty bad impression. Secondly, I wish that James could have married Anne; I really liked him, much better than the hero, and he suited her so well! I didn't really like the hero of this book; I'm a sucker for the rich, dashing gentlemen of her other novels. You don't really know the hero of this book so well.

Anyway, like all her books, the prose is outstanding, her usage of the language remarkable and the reader's attention is never lost; Austen's greatest gift. I have always loved Austen's style of writing, it's great! Great book, highly recommended! Add it to your classics shelf. Don't have one? Get one!!!
=^-^=

Rating:
Summary: An unknown masterpiece of Jane Austen !
Review: Persuasion is one of my favourite novels of Jane Austen. Like in all her other novels Jane Austen describes with wit and style the life of a cute heroin. At that point Anne Elliot is slightely different, because she found her real love when she was a young woman, but she had to break her engagement, because the famaily matters wanted her to. After a few years she still loves the man she broke up with. As she meets him again a couple of years later, he has made a lot of money as Captain . At first they try to keep out of their way, but that seems to be impossible. They meet eachother really often, because the relatives of Anne want him to mary one of their daughters. The love is still there , in both of them, but manners and doubts make it impossible to tell.
Like in all Jane Austen's novels there are implications and disaccords that let you always hope for a Happy End .
And for my opinion Jane Austen wrote the most romantic loveletter in that book.


Rating:
Summary: Jane Austen's Best Work
Review: I've read all of Jane Austen's novels and I am most taken with this one. All of her books are detailed, profound, and well-written; but I am completely drawn to this set of characters and their plights. I also love the charm of this work. One of my favorite parts is very small - Captain Benwick winning over Louisa's skeptical family with his rat-whacking capabilities, since he is somewhat softspoken and not a farming/hunting type. I also love the depth of Mrs. Smith's story, as we learn of her life. The extent of how her circumstances tie in with Anne's situation is important, and it is nice to know that Captain Wentworth is again a hero in assisting Mrs. Smith to a happy ending. This is something they were not able to include in my favorite Jane Austen film, the Amanda Root version of Persuasion. Lady Russel's character is also wonderful. I found her to be much more caring and sympathetic in the book than she was portrayed in the Amanda Root film version, still meddlesome but more well-meaning. I also love the main story and characters of this book, but the addition of the other, smaller events makes this truly an outstanding classic.

Rating:
Summary: One of Jane Austen's best
Review: You know it's very difficult to choose which of Jane Austen's books it the greatest but I can say that this is one I re-read every couple of years. This, the last of Miss Austen's fabulous set of novels, is of the woman who was forced to give up her love and then never loved another. The heroine is more mature than those of her others books, not quite so insentive to others, nor as judgemental. Maybe the most exasperating aspect of this book is that you can see that once reunited, the two still love each other, but obey those deeply instilled lessons in behavior to the point that I find myself almost saying 'for goodness sake, just tell him you love him still'! But that wouldn't be a Jane Austen novel, for you'ld miss the ongoing narrative of families who behave even as families do today, and all of the love knots would not be tied only as neatly as this queen of the early novel could do. Oh, if only she had lived longer, but at least we still, almost 200 years later still have her masterpieces to read over and over!

Rating:
Summary: 'I am half agony, half hope'
Review: The magic and sheer excellence of 'Persuasion' lies in the personalities of the various
characters: Anne Elliot, the heroine of the book, is quiet, caring and proper but beneath
that surface of hers, she's a woman who has loved and lost. Her father, Sir Walter Elliot,
and her sister, Elizabeth are like mirror images of each other, both are shallow, self-proclaimed
snobs and conceited. Captain Frederick Wentworth, Anne's love from her past, is just excellent!
He's the male image of Regency cool: tall, handsome, a man of hard work and lady-killer.

As a novel, 'Persuasion' is a thoughtful insight into the women left behind because of
bad choices, yet it is never self-pitying. I couldn't understand why while I was reading the book
and at the end, I saw what Austen was trying to show.
That is the wicked factor of 'Persuasion', Austen allows you to either
be persuaded or dissuaded.

As a social commentary, it is subtle in how it mocks certain
aspects of society such as the 'dandies' of Regency England, the men who indulged in vanity,
personified by Sir Walter Elliot. Yet, the books acts as a platform for the debate of marriage
begs the question, is marrying outside your station suicidal?

One critic said that 'Persuasion' was like a Regency version of the Cinderella tale: Anne Elliot
is Cinderella, Cpt. Frederick Wentworth her Prince Charming and Lady Russell as the
Wicked Stepmother. This is a blatant over-simplification! Persuasion is at first sight a
beautifully crafted and touching romance but is also a book of many layers.

Last Thought: Enough to convert an Austen cynic into an Austenian.

Rating:
Summary: A Lovely, Lovely Book
Review: I love all Jane Austen's books, but this is my personal favorite. The way the characters interact is very humerous, but the story is touching. I feel more of a connection to Anne than to any of Austen's other characters, and I love the way she and Wentworth fall in love... again.

Rating:
Summary: I Persuade You to Read this Book!
Review: The novel Persuasion by Jane Austen is very good. Although slow at places, it definatly redeems itself throughout the novel. The protagonist, Anne, is in love with a man, but is persuaded out of love because of his social status. The book is a classic romatice novel, but is not cheesy to say the least. I encourage everyone who enjoys a good novel to read this book, but especially females. This book is centered around the social status and appearance of the people in the early 1800's. The way Anne doesn't care, makes her differant than the rest of the characters, but also helps the reader consider thinking for themselves instead of being persuaded by other people's thoughts. By the end of the novel, the reader has the decision whether persuasion is good or bad. I really enjoyed the novel. The reader just needs to be able to make it through the first couple of chapters, then the book is really enjoyable.

Rating:
Summary: Her greatest work
Review: Not all readers are captivated by this quiet, sad, reflective work. But it is also very joyful. It is Jane Austen toward the end of her life reflecting once again on love, companionship and the eternal knot of family, class and society. Anne Elliot is one of the truly abiding heroines of the modern novel: gentle ,wise, politic and balanced. She is a young, beautiful woman thwarted in an early love by societal and family interests. But it is a joy to see her rise again by the recognition of others seeing these same virtues. This is very different novel than Pride and Prejudice but if you don't think it as great a novel meditate again on its resonant power.