I hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures. None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives.
Scheduled post – I’m in London reading and buying more books to review …
Title: Persuasion
Author: Jane Austen
First Published: 1818
My Rating: 4 of 5 stars (average rating on Goodreads: 4.12)
I would recommend this book to: Jane Austen fans
Persuasion is perhaps Jane Austen’s most unadventurous novel. It’s a novel where most of the action / love story has taken part in the past. Anne Elliot has been persuaded by a manipulative relative to break off the engagement with the man she loves because he is not successful enough. Years have passed, Anne has lost the beauty of her youth, and the man is back in town – and now he has success and is sought after by the unmarried women of the town. That’s where our story starts.
You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope.
I loved how different this book was from Jane Austen’s other novels. This book is about old love as opposed to new love, which is much more depicted in literature. She cleverly not only describes but also makes you feel the awkwardness when the two ex-lovers meet again. I could almost feel me own heartbeat rising in tact with Anne’s when she first enters a room knowing that HE will be there. And I cringed with embarrassment when she overheard him talking about her, saying how she’s changed to the unrecognizable over the years they’ve been apart.
How quick come the reasons for approving what we like.
I really liked this part of the story, even though I’ve always wondered why Jane Austen chose to tell the story this way. I guess we’re just used to love stories that start with the first meeting. And if not, at least it’s told in flashbacks. Jane Austen merely hints at their past, but never tells their full story. And I guess that’s one of the strengths of Persuasion.