Persuasion

Persuasion is the last completed novel by Jane Austen and was published posthumously in 1818 curiously together with her first novel Northanger Abbey. The link to Northanger Abbey is due to the fact that the stories of both novels are set partly in Bath and deal with the superficial life of this fashionable city.

The protagonist of the novel is Anne Elliot, intelligent, accomplished and attractive, but unmarried at the age of 27. When she was seven years younger she fell in love with Frederick Wentworth, a honorable but poor naval officer. Because of his poverty, her mentor, Lady Russell, persuaded her to reject his proposal of marriage. After all, Wentworth reenters Annes life, and Anne realizes that women never give up their feelings of love even when all hope is lost.

The novel deals with persuasion as a fundamental process in human communication and shows at the same time that there might be something like just and unjust persuasion. For the contemporary (female) reader Annes behavior might reflect on the possibility of a more courageous, outgoing and fulfilling life. Like the other major novels by Jane Austen, Persuasion has been the subject of several dramatic adaptations for stage, television and cinema.

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