Persuasion was harder to get into than Sense and Sensibility, but definitely worth the additional effort. The first few chapters deal entirely with Sir Walter Elliot and his eldest daughter Elizabeth, and they are both horrible, annoying people. I was really quite concerned that Austen's focus on the ridiculousness of societal stratification would weed me interest right out of the reading. However, she eventually in the third or fourth chapter begins to focus on Anne, who is a delightful, if slightly confusing, character.
When I was about halfway through Persuasion, I asked a colleague in the lounge (she looked like a Jane Austen fan) if she had read it. I was right; she was a Jane Austen fan, and Persuasion was perhaps her favorite of Austen's works. I was curious about this because Pride and Prejudice has always been mine, but she pointed out some salient facts. Not the least of which is Anne is twenty-seven. I guess I should have attached myself to that earlier, as I am also twenty-seven, but it sort of slipped through my mind. Also, Anne is a middle child in a family where only the youngest is married. All this is rather unusual for the time period, but it seemed quite normal to me until Ms. Summers pointed it out. She also mentioned that this book was the most autobiographical of Austen's works, and she felt that Austen might have been writing the alternative ending to her life. This is, of course, a simultaneously pleasing and depressing thought. How sad that she lived alone, desiring male company, but how wonderful that she could create a world in which her deepest desires were manifest.
In terms of my unadulterated reaction to the book, I worried about Anne throughout. She seemed to read things into Captain Wentworth's actions that I would never have been so bold as to read there. I guess that's why it always came as a surprise to me when a guy was interested in me, I could never read the signals correctly. Still, I spent a great deal of the novel waiting for Anne's arrogance to be toppled by Wentworth's engagement to someone else. Thankfully, this was not the case, and everything ends up okay at the end. I will give Ms. Austen credit for her creation of another dashing male character. Wentworth is a rival for Darcy, to be sure. :)
Lazy Summer Days
10 years ago
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