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Synopsis

‘She had been forced into prudence in her youth, she learned romance as she grew older’ 

At twenty-seven, Anne Elliot is no longer young and has few romantic prospects. Eight years earlier, she had been persuaded by her friend Lady Russell to break off her engagement to Frederick Wentworth, a handsome naval captain with neither fortune nor rank. What happens when they encounter each other again is movingly told in Jane Austen’s last completed novel. Set in the fashionable societies of Lyme Regis and Bath, Persuasion is a brilliant satire of vanity and pretension, but, above all, it is a love story tinged with the heartache of missed opportunities.

In her introduction, Gillian Beer discusses Austen’s portrayal of the double-edged nature of persuasion and the clash between old and new worlds. This edition also includes a new chronology and full textual notes.

The Carte Noire Readers
Watch a video of Greg Wise reading an extract from Persuasion.

Reviews

Customer Review: 10 September 2010

Reviewer: Jules

'This is the most perfect novel I know. It has been described as the novel where nothing happens, yet it captures you and does not let go, even after you have closed the back cover. The letter from Captain Wentworth to Anne is heart-stoppingly beautiful, and I defy anyone not to say yes if they were ever told they "pierce my soul". Captain Wentworth is all one could desire in a hero, handsome, rich, kind, attentive, intelligent. Anne is intelligent, kind, patient, and unappreciated; not unloved but accepted as one does a favourite piece of furniture, something you care for and rely on without realising they are actually essential. Years before she was talked out of a marriage and she has spent the time since quietly rueing the day without being able to do anything about it, the talk with Captain Harville is heart-breaking when you realise how much Anne is saying from bitter personal experience. When Wentworth returns to her circle, by chance, she realises her feelings for him haven''t changed, but cannot gauge his feelings. The concert, the accidental meetings, should all tell him how she feels, but neither can quite trust as they did before. Like all Jane Austen''s novels there is wit, wisdom and glorious writing, but tied up in a quiet, deep, thoughtful novel which requires a true appreciation of human nature and an understanding that the most dramatic events are the ones that happen in one''s own mind. '

Critic Review:

‘These modern editions are to be strongly recommended for their scrupulous texts, informative notes and helpful introductions’ 
Brian Southam, the Jane Austen Society

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