Book Review: Persuasion by Jane Austen

Genre: romance, classics, literary fiction
Pages: 238
First Published: 1818
Class: Frigate
Personal Rating: 4.5
My Tagline: All she wanted was a second chance. Only he could give it to her.

"Persuasion has often been seen as the thinking reader's Pride and Prejudice."

Dr. Susan Ostrov Weisser could not have said it any better. Austen fans everywhere agree that with Persuasion, Jane Austen created the most powerful love story ever.

While beginning the novel may be a bit of a chore, there is no doubt that readers are introduced to quite an array of eccentric characters. No less eccentric than Sir Walter Elliot himself, the foppish and often unbearably droll father the three Miss Elliots. In hot pursuit comes two of his daughters, the elder Elizabeth, and the younger, but more memorable Mary, now Mrs. Charles Musgrove of Kellynch.

And, right in the middle, quite as normal and uneccentric as any person you could meet on the street, is Anne. incredibly average and hardly eye-catching, Anne immediately pulls on the reader's sympathies:

Anne, with an elegance of mind and sweetness of character, which must have placed her on high standing with any people of real understanding, was nobody with either father or sister: her word had no weight; her convenience was always to give way; - she was only Anne.

Perhaps the reason Persuasion has long been a favorite is because of its simplicity. It has no action, no adventure story, no hunk with rolling bisceps. Instead Persuasion features a plain Jane, a typical young naval captain, a few petty sisters, a vainglorious father, and a mother-like figure who offers both wisdom and pain. In short, normal, every day life and love.

Perhaps the most striking moment of the entire narrative is, in point, the climax. With all the struggles and emotional turnarounds Anne Elliot and the readers experience up to this point, no one is certain where Captain Wentworth, Anne's former love interest, stands. As far as Anne is concerned, there no second chance. Wentworth is gone forever. Their past and recent hurts have just gone on for too long.


And yet...all is not lost. "The letter" is perhaps the most stunning achievement Austen ever made. Wentworth, a naval officer, a man of impeccable integrity and character, becomes a man of emotion. Though never in spoken words, his affections are once and for all laid out in a remarkable climax that leaves both the readers and Anne Elliot breathless.

From a bibilical point of view, the themes are subtle. Because of its rather mundane setting, Persuasion isn't a story riddled with good vs. evil. Instead, it presents humorous but very real examples of the gentle soul. Anne, often belittled and seldom heeded, nevertheless offers no comeback or retaliation. In many ways, she possesses many Christ-like qualities: never returning reviling for reviling, turning the other cheek, thinking of others before herself, and giving others the benefit of the doubt. In Anne Elliot, readers find a quiet, meek soul, and a true heroine worth rooting for.

Personally, I enjoyed Persuasion. I found my heroine in Anne Elliot, and my favorite gentleman in Captain Wentworth. (He and Mr. Darcy of Pride and Prejudice rival one another, in my mind.)