Book review: Persuasion by Jane Austen

I always feel like a bit of an upstart when I write a review of one of the great works of fiction by an author like Jane Austen, but I just need to remind myself how much I love reading other peoples’ views on these works. Hopefully, someone else can get an idea of the readability of this book through my own review.

Like many older books, it takes a while to settle into Persuasion due to the old language that is used. I find it a bit uncomfortable at the start and look forward to getting to the stage of the book (perhaps a few chapters in) when the reading starts to become more natural.

Persuasion again centres on the story of love and courtship in England and I enjoyed that part of this one was set in Bath, a town I have visited. Anne and her father are set to move to Bath after her father’s frivolous lifestyle has forced them to lease their large house in the country.

Just before she leaves Anne encounters Captain Wentworth with whom she has had an ‘attachment’ in the past, which her friend advised her to break.

There is all of the restraint and simmering passion that you would expect of Austen as the two become reacquainted. Persuasion also contains a cast of diverse characters, including sisters and a parent who are not as restrained or sensible and practical as she is (a theme I feel is not new to Austen …), friends who are looking for their own romantic matches and dashing men who act as a distraction from the true object of Anne’s affection.

There is also the commentary on social mores that is very familiar to Austen’s works, as she explores the situation of women who have been left with nothing by heedless husbands, or others who enjoy wealth and status that seems wasted and entirely unearned.

This is another classic that I’m glad I finally picked up, getting lost in an older world that is no less relevant today as when it was written in 1818.