I'm not sure what's going on with my 2019 Austen novel and film festival. Everything is topsy-turvy. Persuasion was always my solid second favorite, hands down. This time I loved it, as usual, but I'm not sure anymore about its position.

I find it so interesting that in every reading of the novels, I see something different. In one of my other recent Jane Austen reviews, it really jumped out at me just how silly, shallow, and/or downright awful most of her characters really are. The version of Persuasion I'm reading, a survivor from my college bookstore circa 1983, contains a forward that I read for the first time, and the writer notes that his aunt came to a similar realization about Jane Austen, "She HATES people!"

Persuasion certainly offers a great many amusingly dislikable characters, including Sir Walter and his entire immediate and extended family - and include even Anne here. If you told me that I would one day find Anne Elliot more annoying than Fanny Price, I wouldn't believe you. Fanny, the poor relation of Mansfield Park, had a reason to be timid and expect not to be valued or given much consideration in that family.

But Anne is a Baronet's daughter, raised by a vain and silly man to be fully awareness of the entitlements of her station. She was pretty and smart. She captured the heart of the man of her dreams, but turned him down. Then she was proposed to by another man and also turned HIM down. Meanwhile, her horrible sister does not seem to have ever been wanted by anyone. Being sought after in marriage was an important measure of a woman's value at that time. So how did Anne end up such a timid, beaten-down nitwit; why could she never stand up to her idiotic family; and why did they hold her in such contempt?

Anyway, I did still enjoy the romance of Captain Wentworth coming back into her life and the two of them getting a second chance at love. But this time I found myself wondering exactly what it was that he saw in Anne that made her so hard to get over. ( )

A delicious romp with a large cast, including protagonist Anne Elliott, her eccentric family, several hanger-ons and ne'r-do-wells, stuffy society types, young hopeful misses, and a few sane and sensible characters, including Anne's ex-fiance, Captain Wentworth. This is probably my second favorite book by Jane Austen, eclipsed only by the wonderful Pride and Prejudice. A keeper. ( )

My favorite by Austen, one of my favorite books of any kind. Autumnal, mature, with main characters who have both had to grow up and come into themselves before they can repair their relationship. Persuasion has one of the best portrayals of a realistic, cheerful, and successful marriage I have ever seen in print, that of the the Admiral and Mrs. Croft. ( )

This was the last of Jane Austen's six for me, I'd read the other five 'in youth' as the saying is, but never picked up Persuasion. Then we stayed with friends in another city and there was a copy in the bookshelf in the bedroom. I read it fairly uncritically and enjoyed the story. Picked up the Norton edition at a second-hand sale last year and set out to re-read it with the question whether Jane Elliot is the most attractive of Austen's heroines?
I'm still not sure.
In some ways she is the most mature, as of course at 27 she should be. Perhaps it's the influence of the multiple film versions of Pride and Prejudice that leave me feeling that Elizabeth Bennett is a much more prominent and dominant heroine than Anne is in this. Although this book centres on Anne, I don't sense her as being a prominent or distinctive personality. Perhaps that is a back-handed tribute to the skill of the author, Anne Elliot is the central character but of course she is anything but prominent in her family and in her social circles, "she was only Anne."
In coming back to the book a couple of years after reading it for only the first time and remembering it as most enjoyable, I wanted to enjoy and approve it wholeheartedly but confess I was laughing at the awful seriousness with which the seemingly slight accident of Louisa's concussion is treated. There were one or two moments too that were a touch too reminiscent of the wearisome moralising of the preceding generation of novelists to whom Austen is usually such a delightful contrast. (Sorry I didn't mark them and can't cite any now.)
The added value of this edition is the numerous essays, contemporary and modern. There is an excellent review published very soon after Austen's death and the posthumous publication of Persuasion with Northhanger Abbey and some provoking and stimulating articles by more recent writers. ( )

Reading Jane Austen is like sitting on a lazy summer day and soaking in the sun on a grassy field. It's been such a long time since I read one of my favorite writers, and I had forgotten how enjoyable the experience can be.

A friend of mine, who is also a huge fan of Pride and Prejudice, recommended this title as being one of Austen's best works. The novel is different from her others - in this case, the heroine has already discovered her true love, only to lose him to cautiousness, whereas the other books end with the unfolding of that initial love - yet it shares the writer's touch that have endeared those earlier novels to me. Her skill in crafting minor characters, and the way she views them with irony and humor yet is still affectionate with most of them (except the truly terrible ones). Her spunky and intelligent heroine, and her equally engaging male love interest. Her sharp wit. All of these characteristics are still present in this, her final novel.

The story, as I mentioned above, is unusual, though. Anne and Wentworth have already met and fallen in love. They have already overcome their diverse backgrounds - he a sailor in the navy and she a daughter of landed gentry - and felt their love surpass these obstacles. They have already passed the prime of youth, even. Yet that time came and went without their happy ending. Anne acceded to the wishes of her family and friends and broke off their engagement. Not because she believed that Captain Wentworth was ill suited for her, but because she was persuaded that such a move was in the best interests of them both. Now that many years have elapsed, Anne realizes she was wrong, but feels that it is too late to rectify the situation.

Fortunately for her, circumstances conspire to bring Wentworth back in her life. Anne receives that rarest of treasures: a second chance. The melancholy of the first half of the book is gradually effaced by joy and rebirth.

I enjoyed my rediscovery of Austen. I wouldn't call this story equal to Pride and Prejudice, and that might just be the nostalgia talking, but it was a fine novel. I liked every page and was surprised at how quickly I read the book. Also, this was the Norton edition, which means a collection of commentary and critiques supplemented the novel. Literary geek that I am, I always get excited about the fine scholarship in Norton Critical editions. A solid addition to my library, and I am glad that I finally read the only book by Austen that was missing in my reading pursuits. ( )