Persuasion
Ratings443
Average rating4.1
I'm not one for swooning but that letter had my limbs feeling quite faint. What a moment. Loved it.
The book is a delight, Ann is a complex character packed full of doubts even as she exhibits the usual Austen heroine traits of good judgement, excellent decorum and refined taste. The characters around her are the classic mixture of good, bad, and hilariously horrible.
It doesn't tie everything off into a satisfying tight little package like Pride and Prejudice but that isn't the point of this book. The central plot is based around a decade old missed opportunity, add to that the unresolved economic situation, the character threads left hanging, the strange unexpected matches, and it becomes a novel about the randomness of life, the moments that are passed by or that happen to come together.
I rate that.
What I loved most about Persuasion is that the heroine is on up in years. She's gotten past the age when most women marry, yet she doesn't sit around and groan about being a spinster. She's a pleasant, engaging lady and has gone about making her life worthwhile by being a friend to others.
And then, of course, I liked the romance. :)
I do kinda understand Charlotte Bronte's criticisms of Austen, but while she stayed in her lane she was an absolute master of it.
“You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope...I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own, than when you almost broke it eight and a half years ago...I have loved none but you...for you alone I think and plan.—Have you not seen this?”
Summary: Eight years after breaking off her engagement to Captain Wentworth on the advice of those closest to her, Anne Elliot, a well-mannered girl who is little loved by her father and older sister, is unexpectedly thrown into the company of a group composed of several new acquaintances as well as Captain Wentworth himself. What follows is an almost agonizing back and forth of renewed emotions and dashed hopes.
At the beginning I thought I wasn't going to be half as into this one as into P&P or S&S, but once it got going I ended up liking it more than S&S... not more than P&P though. That would be impossible.
What a lovely book this was! Probably my second most favorite Jane Austen work.
We have a second chance romance between two utterly sensible, kind and honorable people, which I am starting to understand is what I like in romance.
I particularly appreciated the fact that the main characters were more mature (if the age of 27 can be considered as such, and given the usual age range for historical romance heroines, I think it should be).
The story is quick and easy to read and as always features some rather illustrious characters.
Anne is definitely a lovely main character and Captain Wentworth was a suitable and believable love interest.
oh anne......such a muted and tragic life lifted up by the letter we all want to receive, of course she handles her situation at the beginning well but her proclivity to be persuaded makes her fade away.
can you hear me cry out to you words I thought I'd choke on figure out......I'm really not so with you anymore I'm just a ghost......
I adore second chance romance stories, and I loved how until the very end it was entirely unclear if Anne would actually have a second chance with her first true love again or not. It was a roller coaster of emotions and I enjoyed it immensely.
I have been reading this book for TWO YEARS. FINALLY!
“You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone forever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago.” This quote completely did me in. I practically raised my rating with a whole star. No one does confessions like Jane Austen.
Persuasion could be my favorite Austen (more investigation required to know for sure). BUT this was not the novel; this was the DRAMATIZATION, which I despise because prose is nixed in favor of inauthentic feeling dialogue and foley work. I also listened explicitly for Florence Pugh and she was JUST the narrator. WHY would you get Florence Pugh and then essentially bar her from delivering any of the meaningful, emotive dialogue that arguably gives Austen's novels their substance?
I am in love with this book! Unlike pride and prejudice, I read this one blind and it has much improved my enjoyment of the story. However much I love pride and prejudice, the joy of reading it was dampened by already knowing the major plot beats, courtesy of the film. For persuasion, however, I had never seen any adaptation or been told of the events of the story, so all the emotions meant to be evoked by the fantastic writing were entirely unsuspected and entirely genuine. Wentworth is a joy. That letter! “Most ardently” has some competition, in my opinion.
Klassiek en typisch Jane Austen natuurlijk. Heerlijke humor, heerlijk dramatisch met sterke figuren in de hoofdrol. Je weet precies hoe ieder gaat reageren op wat dan ook.
This story was great! I love a good Austen every now and then and this one was really engaging and easy to read.
Highly, highly recommend to romance fans and Austen fans :)
Look maybe Jane Austen would have been able to marry Thomas Lefroy if she didn't find miscommunication so romantic... Anne is basic and Frederick is cowardly. When the story finally gets interesting and you think you're going to hear the conversation between them, you don't. It's just a recap. To be fair, it was published posthumously, so that part could have been unfinished. I do love the casual uses of “fervent ejaculations” and “daily intercourse.” I feel obligated to actually read Pride and Prejudice now just to compare.
DNF @ 50%
The book is incredibly dull and the characters are one-dimensional and uninteresting.
Jane Austen shatter my heart and soul once, shame on me. Jane Austen shatter my heart and soul twice. I'm in a perpetual estrangement.
For a long time, I considered Persuasion my 3rd favourite Austen. It was Pride and Prejudice first (obviously), then Emma, before Persuasion. However, upon this reread I may have to change my ranking. But to truly ascertain in Persuasion has moved up in my Austen favourites, I have to read the other two. And that can never be a bad thing :).
Jane Austen's stories are always so entertaining to me. Austen is such a funny writer, and there were many instances that I snickered out loud at something a character said or the way the narrator narrated something.
Anne differs a lot from her family. While they are caught up in making decisions based on social status and wanting to be surrounded with extravagance and others who have wealth and fortune, Anne enjoys being around everyone. Because of this, many people look more fondly upon her than either of her sisters. She has a couple of male admirers throughout the book, and the Musgrove sisters even admit that they wish Anne, rather than her sister, had married their brother. I liked how Anne didn't fall into the same way of thinking as the rest of her family.
My favorite part of the story was Anne's clear character development from when she was younger up until the present. It seems as though Anne is very timid in her thoughts and that she doesn't want people to look down upon her. In her youth, Anne was very easily persuaded by Lady Russell – denying not one, but two men from marrying her simply because Lady Russell did not believe it to be a good fit. Even now, it is clear that Lady Russell still has some hold over Anne's decisions, and she doesn't take Anne's feelings into consideration when determining what is best. The appalling moment that Anne realizes that Lady Russell almost persuaded her again into doing something she would regret is the best part of the whole story. She learns that although it is not bad to seek advice from others, she should be the one making the decisions for her life.
Overall, I highly recommend this book. Watching Anne's character grow over the course of the novel was so awesome, and Austen's stories are just such great and funny reads.