Persuasion
by Jane Austen
First published 1817 · English · 268 pages
- Novels
- Historical fiction
- Love and romance
Persuasion is Austen's last completed novel. Anne Elliot, now twenty-seven, was once persuaded by a family friend to break off her engagement to Frederick Wentworth, a young naval officer with no fortune. Years later he returns, successful and wealthy, and moves in the same social circle.
Against a background of a vain, money-conscious family and the changing society of post-war England, the novel is a quiet story of regret, second chances and constancy. Its autumnal, tender mood has made it a favourite among many readers.
Quotes
You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever.
I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach.
A man does not recover from such a devotion of the heart to such a woman! He ought not; he does not.
All the privilege I claim for my own sex (it is not a very enviable one, you need not covet it) is that of loving longest, when existence or when hope is gone.