Persuasion

Jane Austen never disappoints me! This was the first time I've read this book, and, since it's one of her less popular novels, I didn't know what to expect. However, I quickly was swept up into the story and felt all of Anne's emotions like they were my own. I really enjoyed how, unlike the other Austen novels I've read, this one focuses on love lost and how, over time, people change in some ways but remain the same in other ways. Anne and Captain Wentworth aren't my favorite Austen characters, but I still very much enjoyed how they were forced to face many obstacles, reflect, and mature before getting their happily ever after. My only complaint is that I wish we got to know more about Captain Wentworth, so I could feel the love for him as strongly as Anne does.

In my poor and amateur opinion, I feel as if this is the closest to the contemporary society from all Austen’s work. There was definitely a train of maturity to all characters and plot. At first I was confused as to many saying that this is among her best works despite not being the most popular. There was something similar in the actions of people in the novel to our contemporary society. Yes, the Sri Lankan society is still stuck in some notions of the past.
Persuasions occur around us quite often, whether it be bad or good. And we are all part and parcel to it. Sometimes us doing the persuasion or us being persuaded. The weight of words that someone close to us can change our course of way.

Anne Elliot maybe one of the well written characters in Austen world although I might not call her my favorite, it would be wrong to accept otherwise. Her maturity shines through her actions and her change in manner with years, the manner in which she looks at the world and society in general has changed with time. She is one of the characters that had learnt to mature over time as people should. The short length of the novel severely helps in the execution of the plot.

I am what you call simple and cliche, Mr Knightley still remains one of my favorite Austen heroes but in a manner I guess Captain Wentworth has reached the higher ranks. The more you read Austen, the clearer it becomes how most of her characters have similar characteristics. After reading quite the bit of Austen novels, it is easy to comprehend. It is a running theme in her novels to make a mockery of the high society of that era and with this in her mind, she seemed to model most of her characters similar. The spoilt, rich ladies stuck in their own methods, the gentleman stuck in their high-brow places unable to see anything of the people below them, the heroines who seemed to be not the favorites of anyone, the heroes who are gruff and with time figure out they are in love with the heroines, these recurring characteristics are often found in Austen’s novels. At times it maybe too usual but for a novel written in that time and age, you must give Austen some credit. She went against the norm to make a sarcastic commentary of the society. The mere factor that she saw it despite being of that said society itself should be praised.

With this I come to the sad conclusion that I have only two more Austen novels left to read. Although my review here today feels less flattering on Austen, she remains one of my favorite novelists yet so it really saddens me that I am running out of novels of hers to read. Emma will continue to be my favorite reads of hers and I will most probably going back to reread it quite often but Persuasion will definitely remain with me for quite the time too.

We live at home, quiet, confined, and our feelings prey upon us.

Perhaps many this year have inwardly uttered similar sighs, more or less confined to their house, weeks without a chance to see friends or loved ones turning into months, perhaps even missing the everyday routine of having a chat at the coffee machine in the office. Things can get pretty dark without seeing a perspective.

Readers however can rely on a priceless panacea : when our own thoughts, emotions or tribulations simply are getting too much, we can at least escape or find relief by submerging into someone else’s by picking the right book. During the first lockdown Persuasion was such a book for me. How not to care for Anne Elliot? She turned out an ideal heroine, making me forget for a few hours my own woes purely by empathizing with hers and eventually exulting in the happiness that will be her part.

A delectable novel, incarnate grace.

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You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. 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. Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant.

It is hard for me to write a review for a classic because I think what I want to say was probably already said and in a much better way too. This book has been around for more than two hundred years and in that amount of time, I dare say all kinds of praises have already been written in honor of this Austen novel. I will add to the many good reviews of this book and try in my humble way to say why I love Persuasion.

I think Persuasion is my favorite Austen. Is it because of Wentworth’s letter? Perhaps, but there was something about this book that was just so much more gripping. The romance is understated and the focus is more on Austen’s contemporary times and the social commentary on class divide. But I think this was much more satisfying, entertaining and delightful than her most popular work, Pride and Prejudice.

This novel is the original second chance romance. We have Anne Elliot who is a daughter of a baronet and therefore must marry a man with name, fortune and connections yet she fell in love with Frederick Wentworth who didn’t have any of the three that might have made him qualified as Anne’s potential husband. There had been a short-lived engagement between the two. It was broken off by Anne resulting in Wentworth feeling ill-used. There is a particular quote in the book that I think explains so much, “She had been forced into prudence in her youth, she learned romance as she grew older: the natural sequel of an unnatural beginning.” It was so simple yet so poignant.

I love Anne Elliot. She was a flawed character but I think she was a character that the reader can easily like and relate to. Her biggest flaw is being easily persuaded by the people around her and not fighting for what she wants and at times it got annoying but I think this flaw is also the reason why she is easy to empathize with. I cannot dislike her character for breaking off an engagement especially when you consider her situation. Even Lady Russell I couldn’t dislike because I think had Anne not broken the engagement, Frederick Wentworth wouldn’t be successful in his career. I believe the separation was essential in giving the characters growth. They are the same people as eight years ago but also changed in terms of their situation in life. I think Wentworth became the wealthy man he is out of spite, and without that spite to fuel him then he’d still not be eligible to offer for Anne’s hand. But that’s just my two cents. Anne Elliot was sweet and so much more likeable than other Austen Female characters. She is just so real that you can’t help but feel for her!

Frederick Wentworth is a most swoon-worthy hero. His letter to Anne is still the most romantic declaration of love there ever was in the Austen universe. I’ve read a review saying he’s a bit bland and I can’t disagree but I think the same could be said for other Austen male characters. We never get to read their perspective which I think is why the men remain bland and unknown to us. However, I think the reader can safely deduce about his character based on what was said and what he does. His actions towards Anne were subtle but it was there. He was truthful in saying that he was never inconstant but he had been in fact weak and resentful. In all fairness, I think being weak can also be said for Anne. The heroine had scruples about their relationship while Wentworth had been, well, resentful, resulting in him not pursuing Anne when he could’ve done so after making a small fortune. Throughout the book, it was obvious that he was still in love with Anne but he didn’t want to acknowledge his feelings because he felt spurned eight years and a half ago. It was easy for me to sympathize with him because I feel that I understood his motivations.

Like I have said, the romance between Wentworth and Anne is not really the main focus in this book. How I wish it was! But I have to say that while it was understated, it was still effective and palpable. I enjoyed the social commentary done the Austen way. I have already praised Austen’s wit in my P&P review but I’ll just re-affirm it here. As I’ve said, she writes some of the most romantic, relatable and relevant passages ever known to humankind. I don’t know how she does it but her way with words is just truly one of the best a reader can encounter in their reading journey. She is timeless and it is no wonder so many of her books are still loved by many up to now.

I think it could have been boring but I really liked it. It also helped that it wasn’t as long as Pride and Prejudice or her other books. It was short but still well-written and has well developed and nuanced characters. Let me just talk about the romance again. Although it isn’t as prominent as I would have liked, I understand that things were different back then. Thank God for the historical romance genre because we get so much more focus on the main characters even when set in the past. Anyway, the romance between Wentworth and Anne was both swoon-worthy and saddening. It was obvious that the two of them loved each other but there were real reasons why they couldn’t be together years ago. It was tinged with regrets, the what ifs and what could have been. It evoked a great sadness in me when Wentworth realized Anne would have accepted him had he come back sooner to her. There was so much relief and satisfaction too when Wentworth wrote that letter and Anne read it. I teared up a bit when I read the letter. It simply is one of the most romantic things I’ve ever read. The relief Tom Severin felt when he read it? Me too. With all that said, this remains as my favorite Austen work and couple! I am a sucker for Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth!

Some Quotes:

“There could have never been two hearts so open, no tastes so similar, no feelings so in unison, no countenances so beloved. Now they were as strangers; nay, worse than strangers, for they could never become acquainted. It was a perpetual estrangement.”

“I do not think I ever opened a book in my life which had not something to say upon woman's inconstancy. Songs and proverbs, all talk of woman's fickleness. But perhaps you will say, these were all written by men."

“Anne hoped she had outlived the age of blushing; but the age of emotion she certainly had not.”

“She understood him. He could not forgive her, but he could not be unfeeling. Though condemning her for the past, and considering it with high and unjust resentment, though perfectly careless of her, and though becoming attached to another, still he could not see her suffer, without the desire of giving her relief. It was a remainder of former sentiment; it was an impuse of pure, though unacknowledged friendship; it was a proof of his own warm and amiable heart, which she could not contemplate without emotions so compounded of pleasure and pain, that she knew not which prevailed.”

“How she might have felt had there been no Captain Wentworth in the case, was not worth inquiry; for there was a Captain Wentworth: and be the conclusion of the present suspense good or bad, her affection would be his forever. Their union, she believed, could not divide her more from other men, than their final separation.”

It's a worrisome affair if you have to plod through an Austen work all the while unsuccessfully battling the urge to slap more than half of the central characters. And this comes from someone who is well-accustomed to Austen's often whiny, vain, and hilariously self-deluded characters who serve as comedy gold and tools of subtle social commentary. But somehow in this posthumously published work, I feel she focused her attentions on lathering an extra layer of vindictiveness on to many of the players. Additionally, the first three quarters of the narrative progressed in the most lacklustre manner possible with little to no development on any front. No dramatic confrontations, emotionally charged conversations, simmering sexual tension or witty, flirty banter to spice things up. The overwhelming blandness of it all felt too close to real life situations.

But of course, this is Austen. The same woman whose remarkable insight on the condition of women is reflected in a letter to one of her correspondents a hundred years ago.

n  Single women have a dreadful propensity for being poor-which is one very strong argument in favour of Matrimony.n

The same woman who rescued the English novel from the tenacious grip of the age of sentiment and genre trope hysterics of the gothic novel to give it a truly modern form. The same woman who tried to challenge the laws that governed social interaction of the times by placing as great an emphasis on moral behaviour as on class-based identity.
And this very same woman makes Anne Elliot her mouthpiece while arraigning the convention of woman-shaming that contemporary male novelists upheld with gusto and a latent smugness.

n  Men have had every advantage of us in telling their own story. Education has been theirs in so much higher a degree; the pen has been in their hands. I will not allow books to prove any thing.n

So yes my dwindling interest in the book and abrupt loss of faith in Austen's brilliance lasted only for a few disappointing pages before she turned things around quite climactically. At the ripe age of twenty-seven, Anne Elliot maybe one of Austen's least remarkable heroines. Neither does she possess Emma's sass and cool confidence nor does she exude Elizabeth's unwavering self-esteem and channel a sardonic indifference towards her social superiors. And yet she never backs down from defending members of her own sex from unsavory remarks based on hollow prejudices.

n  It is a difference of opinion which does not admit of proof. We each begin probably with a little bias towards our own sex, and upon that bias build every circumstance in favour of it which has ocurred within our circle; many of which circumstances (perhaps those very cases which strike us the most) may be precisely such as cannot be brought forward without betraying a confidence, or in some respect saying what should not be said.n

So persuasion. The excellence of this book's central premise is that it establishes Anne Elliot as a woman who is consistent in love and errs only on the side of caution even though outwardly she is perceived as a pushover, one who yields easily to persuasion and incitement. Long story short, Austen ingeniously misled both her hero and her reader to the wrong conclusions about the heroine. And she knew how exactly to subvert the power dynamics of hierarchical social structures while simultaneously preserving the veneer of conformity. If that's not genius, I don't know what is.

Debo decir que esta novela me ha decepcionado y me ha sembrado la duda sobre el grado de talento que se le da a la autora. Me hace pensar que tal vez "La abadía de Northanger" fue el libro suyo que más me gustó por lo corto en relación a las otras dos; cuando leí "Emma" también pasé momentos de aburrimiento y me desagradó, pero pensándolo bien mis expectativas ahí no eran muy altas pues no conocía a la autora hasta entonces ni había oído comentarios tan buenos que como siempre interesándome luego por la autora había recogido; tal vez por ello no lo vi tan malo.
No fue el caso con "Persuasión" del cual había leído buenos comentarios y creo que la introducción de mi edición es un poco exagerada.
La historia cuenta las aventuras de Anne Elliot en su círculo social conformado por su padre Sir Walter Elliot, sus hermanas Mary y Elizabeth; sus amigos los Musgrove con sus hijos Henrietta, Charles y Louisa y los que llegan luego el capitán Wentworth, Harville y Benwick.
Empezando por lo que me gustó del libro: lo que más me gusta fue la relación entre Anne Elliot y lady Russell; me gustó mucho esta innovación en relación a sus otras obras sin embargo pudo ser mucho más explotada; si es bien cierto que Lady Russell influenció en la toma de decisión digamos de un momento importantísimo en la vida de Anne (que sucede antes de la historia en sí) pero no creo que eso justifique la falta de esencia, de diálogos que una premisa tan interesante prometía: una señora digamos poco comprendida y poco considerada guarda con la hija diferente de la familia una relación especial, no creo que se vio lo interesante de esa relación y se prestaba para mucho más. Como una discípula y su maestra. Por ejemplo, creo más bien que Mrs Smith es la que da dinamismo a la historia con su pasado y sus diálogos directos.
Dejando de lado el hecho de muchos tipos recurrentes en Jane Austen (la joven buena pero infravalorada, los chismes interminables de saber quién queda con quién, la importancia excesiva al abolengo) debo decir que me saturó la presencia universal en la novela de juzgar por la cuna y por las maneras de comportarse de cada personaje que era introducido o blanco de interés, obviando otras descripciones como la edad (de muchos personajes nunca tuve la más mínima idea de cómo eran) y también eso me hizo pensar que en general leyendo toda la novela se nota algo de limitación en cuanto a la profundidad de las descripciones.
Los personajes muy rígidos: Anne la hermana buena, inteligente humilde y bondadosa, sus hermanas siempre superficiales, envidiosas de las dotes de la protagonista y despreciándola, incapaces de mostrar algo de inteligencia. El capitán Wenworth llamado a ser uno de los principales me pareció un personaje demasiado melancólico y si bien es cierto considero la constancia un valor digno de admirar no creo que sólo eso justifique para ser considerado un gran personaje. Ambos en general hacen la novela más tediosa de lo que podría haber sido.
Y pues es evidente que la novela se pone interesante en la quinta última parte, los capítulos finales sí son los que levanta un poco la historia al presentarnos los sentimientos y pensamientos de los protagonistas de manera más palpable. El saber luego que justamente ésos fueron los capítulos que Jane Austen "corrigió" me hace aun ver las cosas más negras pues gracias a ellos mi puntuación va de 3 estrellas.
Es una obra bien escrita en general, pero no colmó mis expectativas pues le veo muchos puntos negativos, comparándola con "Jane Eyre" hay bastante diferencia creo en cuanto a profundidad, conocimientos y caracteres. No la recomendaría a cualquier persona.
Y dicho esto, creo que lo mejor es darme un descanso de Jane Austen para poder leer despejado sus otras obras que aún no he leído como "Orgullo y prejuicio" o "Sensatez y sentimientos", que espero que no me decepcionen o que por lo menos sean menos aburridas que "Emma" y "Persuasión".

Persuasion by Jane Austen is a 2016 Enhanced Media publication. (Originally published in 1817)

A wonderfully pleasant classic by one of my favorite writers.

When I was invited to review a new book, the premise of which, is a modern -day retelling of Jane Austen’s Persuasion, I accepted immediately.

But, once I’d signed on, it occurred to me that I didn’t remember any of the details of Persuasion. Surely, since Jane Austen has written some of my very favorite books, and I consider her to be one of my top five favorite authors, I have read every one of her books, right? Maybe I just needed a refresher. But, for the life of me, I have no memory of ever having read this one.


So, despite my tight reading schedule, I just had to stop the assembly line and squeeze this one in.

While there are already plenty of reviews for this book, I just wanted to share my experience of it with you.

Up front, I must confess, this book, while listed as a favorite by many, is not mine, mainly because of the time it took to get to the meat of the story, and I felt the momentum dragged in some places.

However, I did appreciate the more serious tone, the way Anne managed to dodge traditional female roles, and for her time, she is written as a strong, mature, character, who didn’t mind pointing out the advantages men had in the way of education and the way they often thought of women as being ‘inconstant’. She wasn’t exactly ironical, but she makes her point. I loved that!

I also enjoyed the themes explored, concerning character traits, and the misjudgment, or maybe the PRE- judgment of those traits, while also touching on the disadvantages of remaining totally one- dimensional. This story also delves into the complexities of family, friendship, and of course love, and is well balanced and rounded.

The writing of course is quite different from what we are accustomed to, or I should say, what I'm accustomed to, and at times the wordiness was challenging, but I did appreciate the manners, and activities described, and the characterizations.

While this one isn’t quite as sharp as other Austen novels, in my opinion, and is a just a bit more pensive than usual, I still found myself looking forward to the time I could spend with Anne inside her pre-Victorian landscape.

4 stars