The last novel completed by Jane Austen before her death, Persuasion is often thought to reflect on the author's own lost love.
Sir Walter Elliot has raised his three daughters with his own sense of haughty pride. Elizabeth, at twenty-eight, has found no one good enough to marry, while Mary has, with some condescension, married the son of the local squire. The youngest, Anne, was persuaded to throw off her fiancé eight years ago due to his lowly station in life. When Captain Frederick Wentworth returns from the Napoleonic Wars a man of wealth and rank, Anne must confront her remorse and her unrequited love for him as he courts another woman. This is a story of second chances, humility, and the perseverance of love.
Jane Austen (1775-1817) was born at Steventon, England, and later moved to Bath. She began to write early for her own and her family’s amusement. Her novels, set in her own English countryside, depict the daily lives of provincial middle-class families with wry observation, a delicate irony, and a good-humored wit. She is now considered by many scholars to be the first great woman novelist.
