Persuasion (Penguin Popular Classics)

A masterpiece of high comedy and an enchanting romance, Persuasion (1818) chronicles Anne Elliot's struggle for authenticity as she attempts to reclaim her discarded love. When she first met Captain Wentworth, he had "nothing but himself to recommend him, and no hopes of attaining influence." The captain returns, eight years later, a strikingly successful naval officer; now, Anne must search for a means to overthrow both her father, a snobbish and petty baronet, and the ideals of decorum which forbid expression of female desire. SUMMARY: Austen's last novel is the crowning achievement of her matchless career. Her heroine, Anne Elliot, a woman of integrity, breeding and great depth of emotion, stands in stark contrast to the brutality and hypocrisy of Regency England. Includes a new Introduction by Margaret Drabble, famed novelist and editor of The Oxford Companion to the English Language. Persuasion tells the love story of Anne Elliot and Captain Frederick Wentworth, whose sister rents Miss Elliot's father's house, after the Napoleonic Wars come to an end. The story is set in 1814. The book itself is Jane Austen's last published book, published posthumously in December of 1818. Jane Austen's last novel has a vivid new sense of how easily love can be crushed by convention. Yet her razor-sharp irony utterly destroys the pretensions of Bath's 'high society', making Persuasion both an enchanting romance and a masterpiece of high comedy