Classic
Persuasion
by Jane Austen
Summary
Anne Elliot, now nearly thirty, encounters Captain Wentworth again years after she was persuaded to break their engagement over his lack of fortune. Austen writes her quietest and most reflective heroine, weighing the cost of prudence against the pain of lost love as the two circle each other through a summer of visits and gossip. The novel's mature tone and its portrait of a woman still capable of change made it a fitting close to Austen's career.
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Historical Context & Significance
Austen finished the novel shortly before her death and it was published in 1817, alongside Northanger Abbey, in a combined posthumous edition. Readers and critics have long singled it out for its unusually somber, autumnal mood among her novels.