Persuasion

A good Austen novel, but the real question is, is it better than Pride and Prejudice? I'm probably very biased having watched at least two movie adaptations of the P&P, but I'd probably say no. I do like that the main character is 27 (basically decrepit by Regency era standards). The build-up of romance is vaguely there throughout the book but some of it is implied as happening in the past, while with P&P you get to read through it all, so I think that's why I like it better.

3.5

I suspect I read this at the wrong time. This was well-written, with characters I came to know and understand, if not like (duh- it's Jane Austen), but it was a challenge to read at this stressful time. This was our classic choice for book club this year, and I am looking forward to the discussion. I will re-read this in the future, and suspect I will appreciate it much more when I do. :)

One sentence synopsis... Ruthless and brilliant, Austen's last complete novel concerns Anne Elliot, a young Englishwoman, reunited with her first love 7 years after their breakup. .

Read it if you like... stories about second chances. .

Dream casting... Ella Hunt as Anne Elliot and Johnny Flynn as Frederick Wentworth.

The first half of the novel was more enjoyable than Pride and Prejudice, but then I got tired of waiting for Wentworth to have more lines!!

Man barely spoke two sentences for 90% of the book, and then spoke for 3 pages non-stop near the end

Captain Wentworth is a better romantic character than Mr. Darcy. There. I said it.

I don't know if it's the so-called “Covid brain,” but I managed to make it through the whole audiobook while absorbing maybe 5 - 10% of the contents. Then again, I had a similar experience with Northanger Abbey almost a decade ago. No rating, but if I ever attempt Austen again, I'll have to try an old-fashioned ink-on-paper book.

Took me a while to finish this one, but in the end it was a satisfying read. Austen was both a gifted writer and a keen observer of human nature.
As you might expect with a book written over 200 years ago, some words have gone out of use or have changed/gained/lost meanings or connotations. However, that didn't prove to be much of a problem. I read an annotated version which was helpful at times.

My favorite Jane Austen book. I love to re-read this one.

I loved this! Jane Austen is definitely my favorite classical author!

What a lovely story. Enjoyed Austen's exploration of family dynamics, social status, and the pursuit of marriage with the added flair of irony throughout.

I thought it would be love at first sight. It wasn't it.

Jane Austen is everything contemporary America is not. Jane Austen has no real plot points; no buildings explode, and no diabolical schemes to control the world appear in her stories. But Jane Austen isn't wispy either, no light read, no little summer story, not just a bit of romantic fluff.

Jane Austen is completely unexpected. A Jane Austen book is a solid two hundred pages of people in beautiful but uncomfortable clothing, standing around in lovely but uncomfortable homes, talking together, beautifully but uncomfortably.

I thought about turning my copy of Persuasion back into the library. I resisted.

I stuck with Jane.

Jane grew on me.

Jane Austen is clever and intricate; it helps to have an annotated edition of your Austen and to watch the four hour BBC movie of the book and a Jane Austen reference book or two. Jane Austen is subtle; I've missed subtle. Jane Austen builds, rewarding patience and persistence and all those wonderful old-fashioned virtues of the past, as it culminates in a just and genuine ending.

I've been reading Jane Austen for ten days now. I'm reading Carol Shields' bio of Jane as well. And, just for fun, I'm browsing through Jane Austen for Dummies.

I finished Persuasion. I will go on to read all six of Jane's novels. I am completely surprised to discover that I have grown to respect her and admire Jane Austen. So I urge you to persist. Have patience. Read Jane Austen. We need Jane Austen in our world today, I think.

2018 update: still yes to all of the below. Although the last paragraph is a pretty weird, ambivalent way to end the story, everything that leads up to it is masterful. Wentworth>Darcy 4EVA.

**I avoid sappy romance, but my heart would skip a beat when Captain Wentworth betrayed a possible remnant of affection for Anne.I'm a liberal, egalitarian, modern American woman, but somehow I can sympathize with Austen's shock at “unsuitable” marriages below one's station (never mind *gasp premarital sex!).

I'm probably more like sister Mary than I'd like to admit, but I can laugh at her hypochondria and negativity.

I'm naturally sarcastic and impatient with stupidity and . . . well, yeah, there I'm in perfect alignment with Jane.

I can never decide if Persuasion or Pride & Prejudice is my favorite Austen novel. Her wit is so sharp, and her characters so delightful, she's always a joy to read. This story of love, rejection, grief, and second chances is amusing, thrilling, and heart-warming.

This time around, I listened to Juliet Stevenson's reading, and she does an amazing job of bringing the story to life. I look forward to revisiting Persuasion again and again.

3.5/5 Stars

All though I loved this book considerably more than P&P I still had some difficulty getting into it/ understanding it because of the language. My favorite character in Anne I kind of see myself in her. I also felt really sorry for her because of the way she was treated by her family/friends well basically by everybody she knows. That letter at the end that Captain Wentworth wrote oh my gosh. Everybody seems to be in love with Mr. Darcy from P&P but not me nope I am team Captain Wentworth (swoon)

I never thought I'd like this Austen novel as much as I did. Captain Wentworth might be my new favorite Austen hero... I loved Anne too, she was an amazing protagonist.

Довольно неплохой роман про выбор между доводами рассудка и чувствами, которыми руководит сердце. Показался немного затянутым и хорошо, что не рассказываются 8.5 лет, которые разделяют главную героиню от её счастья. В целом читать вполне себе можно про английские всякие штучки, манеры и ценности, но до Тургенева не дотягивает :) Хотя сама основная концепция произведения о возрождении любовных чувств спустя много лет у немолодой уже девушки интересна.

Кто любит Остин, всё равно прочитает, другие же могут пропустить. Книгу нельзя назвать очень увлекательной, но иногда хочется в мозг запустить отравляющие вещества, потому что иногда не стоит слушать доводы рассудка :-)

Absolutely loved it! I challenge anyone to say any of Austen's novels surpass this one...seriously. Will totally take on any recommendation.
(B/c the only other book I've read by Austen is Pride & Prejudice)

Official Review:

Loved it more than Pride & Prejudice. (Granted, I will probably re-read it since I loved Persuasion so much but overall, I think this one, being her last published novel, was more refined in its writing.)

Anne Elliot is the middle child, sister of Elizabeth and Mary, daughter of Sir Walter Elliot. When Anne was nineteen years old, she was engaged to a sailor known as Frederick Wentworth, who, according to her family and dear friend Lady Russell, was not good enough for her–in wealth or status. Anne, being the timid flower she was at nineteen, was persuaded finally by Lady Russell not to go through with the marriage, utterly devastating Mr. Wentworth. Now, it's almost eight years later, and Anne's family is experiencing some financial trouble and have decided to let their house to an Admiral Croft and his wife, sister of a Captain Wentworth, while Anne and her family are supposed to move to Bath for the time being.

The plot begins from there and Anne is slightly derailed from going directly to Bath with her sister and Father by her younger, married and attention-seeking sister Mary Musgrove who has caught one of her frequent ill-spells. From Mary's husband's family, the Musgroves, Anne soon learns that the past eight years that have sort of wrecked her life physically and outwardly will come to a peak because Captain Wentworth has been expressly invited by the Musgroves to talk about their lost son who was one of the sailors on the Captain's ship years ago.

As Anne confronts the reality that is her successful and still unbelievably charming ex-fiancé, she questions the possibility that she could have been wrong in being persuaded not to marry him. It's with the help of the fantastic motley crew of characters that Austen constructed for this book that Anne can fully appreciate and thoroughly analyze her personal development theses past eight years. With the characters, I couldn't help comparing some to those in Pride & Prejudice, especially Mr. Elliot, heir to Sir Walter Elliot and Anne's cousin. I was constantly questioning whether he was going to be the Mr. Collins or Mr. Wickham of Persuasion. The Captain and Anne made for a very different pairing than Elizabeth and Darcy. Where Elizabeth is all pride and defiance, Anne is timid and docile. Where Darcy is stoic and rigid, Captain Wentworth is social and confident. I enjoyed the fact that Austen kind of revisited old territory where the antagonist in this book is concerned but I mostly could not get enough of the new diverse characters and their corresponding background stories.

As I said before, this time around Austen's writing was more refreshingly understandable and cohesive than when I first attempted one of her novels. I don't know if it was better editing or what but when I had to put the book down I couldn't wait to pick it back up and continue with the story. Mainly that and the characters was the allure for me.

I'd say the only negative about Persuasion was the lack of deserved reproval of Anne's mutable and impressionable decisions when she was nineteen. Although she sort of acknowledged Lady Russell's influence and accepted her warning as a way of protecting Anne from some MIGHT-BE-HORRIBLE future, I think she should have been more conscious of how her family and friend were dictating how she should live her life. It came off as uncaring and gave the message that even though a woman rejects a man, if she wants to be with him again, she can just blame it on the circumstances at the time and not her own decisions.

However, overall, I have to give this book a high rating because I loved everything else so much that I could look past that flaw. It really was an awesome build-up to the romance and I liked how the antagonist's arc was handled and how the truth about them was revealed as well. Majorly recommended to read if you haven't read anything by Austen yet.

A

No matter how hard I try, I've never been a big Jane Austen fan. I enjoy the movies (well, most of them) based on her work, but the books themselves? Not so much. I figured at less than 300 pages I'd see if this one could change my mind. Unfortunately no. Still not an Austen fan. I liked the idea of the premise. I liked the fact that her main characters were older (I don't know about more mature. Holding a grudge for 8 yrs isn't at the top of my maturity list). I liked the last 20 pages though the end felt rushed. The rest of the book felt like it took forever to get through. There was way too much exposition - too much summarizing of character thoughts and actions and not enough showing the reader what was happening. In other words a little more actual dialogue would have done wonders to keep boredom from setting in.

Quero dar 5 coraçõezinhos ao invés de estrelinhas. Cadê uma extensão pra fazer isso?

❤❤❤❤❤

Releio esse livro de tempos em tempos por ser meu favorito. Entre uma leitura e outra, tem pelo menos 20 livros lidos no meio (o que me torna uma leitora um tico mais madura entre uma leitura e outra).
Cada vez que releio consigo encontrar algum defeito novo, mas cada vez que releio também encontro mais qualidades.
Nessa releitura percebi como a maioria dos personagens são bidimensionais (estou olhando pra toda a família da Anne em especial. Mr. Elliot, isso é com você)
Tambem percebi o porque de, apesar de amar esse livro, não recomendar como uma primeira leitura das obras da Jane austen: você precisa ter muita confiança na autora pra conseguir sobreviver a primeira impressão da Anne do começo livro. Ela é tipo o patinho feio. Passa o começo do livro se sentindo na merda, como a pior pessoa do mundo, pra depois ganhar auto confiança e perceber o quão incrível ela é.
O Wentworth também ganhou o posto do mocinho da austen predileto por ser o mais humano e realista.
Nessa releitura consegui perceber melhor o quanto esse livro é bem escrito (mesmo com a tradução porca que peguei). Como ela consegue mostrar toda a dinâmica entre as 3 irmãs elliot em um pequeno parágrafo de 3 linhas.
Essa releitura só reforçou esse livro como o meu predileto. Pode não ser o melhor livro do mundo, mas é pra ele que eu sempre volto quando procuro sair de uma ressaca literária ou simplesmente me sentir mais felizinha.

(vou roubar na minha nota do goodreads e deixar mais 5 corações ❤❤❤❤❤)

Review update 2022:
It is more than 10 years since I first read this book and everytime I reread it I fall more in love with it. It has become one of my all time favourite books and is solidly my favourite Jane Austen novel. I truly think this may be Miss. Austen's best work. I still highly recommend this book to everyone.

Original review from 2011:
This book is tied for my favourite Jane Austen book with P&P. I definitely never thought I would fall in love with this book as much as I have and everytime I reread it I fall more in love with it. Even though this book may be one of Miss. Austen's less known books it truly is a Jem. I highly recommend reading this.

I liked it. Ached for the ending to come out right, and it finally did (of course). Very enjoyable read.

I read this one summer when I was a teenager and had a hard time getting through this book. I've never been a fan of Jane Austen but wanted to give it a fighting try. Maybe if I reread it as a 30 something year old I might like it but for now I absolutely hated this book.

Reread/listen of the classic, and Austen is still the master of witty examinations of the human mind inside a Victorian love story. This one shines in the small moments - the hidden glances, the blushes - yet lacks in plot and development of side characters.