Synopses & Reviews
The accident of death makes Persuasion Jane Austen's final novel. It deserves its position by its innovative treatment of passion and rhetorical style and its development of those themes of memory and time, public and private history, inner and outer lives, language and literature, emotion and restraint that have marked all Austen's work. Where the other works move towards a new symbolic and physical home for the heroine, Persuasion begins with her ejection and ends with her understanding that home is not a place at all but an ambiance and an acceptance of change. The volume provides comprehensive explanatory notes, an extensive critical introduction covering the context and publication history of the work, a chronology of Austen's life, and an authoritative textual apparatus. This edition is an indispensable resource for all scholars and readers of Austen.
Synopsis
Featuring one of her most likeable characters, this sparkling love story set in a seaside resort is Jane Austen's final finished work.
Since Anne Elliot eight years ago rejected the marriage proposal of Captain Wentworth, a penniless naval officer, she has resigned herself to a quiet life at home, tending to the imagined needs of her spoiled sisters and vain father (Austen's brilliant, utterly conceited creation, Sir Walter Elliot). But when Captain Wentworth reappears in their midst, having made his fortune at sea, Anne must ask herself whether she made the right decision--or allowed herself to be persuaded against her heart. Jane Austen's last completed novel and her most optimistic and romantic work, Persuasion gives full scope to Austen's artistic powers, blending sharp wit and warm sympathy, stylistic brilliance and matchless insight. As Margaret Drabble describes in her introduction, it is a story of "perseverance and patience and delayed romance," affirming the lasting power of love and the rejuvenating power of hope.
With an Introduction by Margaret Drabble
and an Afterword by Diane Johnson
Synopsis
Featuring one of her most likeable characters, this sparkling love story set in a seaside resort is Jane Austen's final finished work. "There could have been no two hearts so open, no tastes so similar, no feelings so in unison."
Since Anne Elliot eight years ago rejected the marriage proposal of Captain Wentworth, a penniless naval officer, she has resigned herself to a quiet life at home, tending to the imagined needs of her spoiled sisters and vain father. But when Captain Wentworth reappears in their midst, having made his fortune at sea, Anne must ask herself whether she made the right decision--or allowed herself to be persuaded against her heart.
Jane Austen's last completed novel and her most optimistic and romantic work, Persuasion gives full scope to the author's artistic powers, blending sharp wit and warm sympathy, stylistic brilliance and matchless insight. It is a story that affirms the lasting power of love and the rejuvenating power of hope.
With an Introduction by Margaret Drabble
and an Afterword by Diane Johnson
Synopsis
The most comprehensive scholarly edition available of Jane Austen's innovative final novel.
Synopsis
A sparkling love story set at a seaside resort-now in a new package When the man whose proposal she rejected returns from his long military tour at sea, Anne Elliot is forced to face the decision she made eight years ago-along with the man she's never stopped loving.
Synopsis
Since rejecting the hand of a penniless suitor eight years prior, Anne Elliot has resigned herself to tending to her spoiled sisters and vain father. But when her former suitor appears after making his fortune, Anne must ask herself if she made the right decision-or if she allowed herself to be persuaded against her own heart.
About the Author
Jane Austen was born on December 16, 1775 at Steventon near Basingstoke, the seventh child of the rector of the parish. She lived with her family at Steventon until they moved to Bath when her father retired in 1801. After his death in 1805, she moved around with her mother; in 1809, they settled in Chawton, near Alton, Hampshire. Here she remained, except for a few visits to London, until in May 1817 she moved to Winchester to be near her doctor. There she died on July 18, 1817.
As a girl Jane Austen wrote stories, including burlesques of popular romances. Her works were only published after much revision, four novels being published in her lifetime. These are Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1816). Two other novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, were published posthumously in 1818 with a biographical notice by her brother, Henry Austen, the first formal announcement of her authorship. Persuasion was written in a race against failing health in 1815-16. She also left two earlier compositions, a short epistolary novel, Lady Susan, and an unfinished novel, The Watsons. At the time of her death, she was working on a new novel, Sanditon, a fragmentary draft of which survives.
Margaret Drabble is recipient of many prestigious awards for her writing, which includes works of nonfiction as well as numerous novels.