Though its plot may be less intricate than those of Austen’s earlier works, Persuasion is a captivating tale, and Anne Elliott is one of her most enduring creations. The last novel Austen wrote in her short life, it points toward an expansion of her extraordinary talents; in the pages of Persuasion, Virginia Woolf would astutely write a century after its publication, Austen “is beginning to discover that the world is larger, more mysterious, and more romantic than she had supposed.” It is a discovery the reader is happy to share.
Of all Austen’s fabulous novels, this is the most captivating. It shows the virtues of restraint and the power of families and ‘the accepted thing’ to derail lives. The characters are acutely and wittily drawn, with flashes of acerbic pen, but even the silliest of characters are treated to the dignity of their feelings.
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